The New Dark Wizards
by Rahxas
Summary: Hogwarts school is about to have four new students all prepared for classes. However, will they be able to maintain a friendship with the craziness that is the Potter/Weasley family? And what about the lingering threat of danger that Albus Potter faces? This story is a Next Generation Fic that focus' around Albus Potter and his internal and external struggles.
1. Nervous

**Author's Note: This story is a revamped and rebooted version of my previous two stories: A Precious Rose and The New Dark Wizards. This story was moved to Wattpad for many years and chapters are still being updated there first. For anyone that wants to read the story as it currently is, feel free to message me and I will help you find it. The story focus has switched quite a bit from where it started the first day I published it here on fanfiction but I do hope that you will all enjoy it again for what it is. I may or may not removed the original versions of the story here but I haven't made a decision about that yet.**

 **For those who do not like it, the story contains many OCs as there are not just Potters/Weasleys/Malfoys/Scamanders at Hogwarts currently. One of my OCs is a major contributor in the story and becomes one of the four protagonists in the series. The story gets progressively darker as it goes along and has had many name changes while it was on Wattpad (originally being published as The Start of a New Generation).**

 **Please feel free to leave a comment on the plot of the story as constructive criticism helps me immensely to write the story. I will admit, I know the grammar is not perfect in this story as I do all my own editing at about four in the morning.**

 **Anyway, here is the first chapter and you will see all of them eventually get published here on Fanfiction. I will try to update weekly as I continue the story on Wattpad as well. Let me know what you think and thank you.**

 **~Rahxas**

Chapter One

It was normal for someone to be nervous about their first day of school. There was so much to look forward to especially when your first day of school was at the best wizarding school in the country: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. There were so many questions a student wondered about the night before: "would I be any good at magic?", "would I pass all of my classes?", "would I fit in?" These were the questions that were on the mind of young Rose Weasley as she stared out the window of her parent's home to the grounds below.

Out in the garden, her younger cousin and brother were chasing each other around, laughing without a care in the world. Tomorrow wasn't their first day at Hogwarts so there wasn't anything they had to worry about. She envied them and their childish innocence. After a few minutes, she pulled away from her window and sat down at the desk sighing softly as her eyes glanced over the books in front of her.

In the morning, she'd pack everything in her trunk with her father and they'd bring it downstairs to the car. She had already read a bit of each of her course books for the year and tried to take in as much as she could from them. Rose was often informed that she had inherited her mother's brains, that she was very smart and it was an expectation that she tried very hard to live up to. It was a lot of pressure which was why she was trying so hard to know what to do and why she was worried that she'd already failed before she even arrived at the school.

Several times had she asked her parents what house they wanted her to be in. Hermione Weasley, her mother with whom she shared almost every aspect of her appearance, told her that it didn't matter what house; she'd love her no matter what. Her father, Ronald Weasley whose red hair she inherited, had said that Slytherin was out of the question, that the meanest people were in Slytherin. He proudly proclaimed that he hoped she would be in Gryffindor like all of the Weasley family before her. Her cousins James, Dominique, Victoire, Molly, and Lucy, had all been in Gryffindor. She and her cousin, Albus Potter, were supposed to be the next Gryffindors in the family.

Ronald Weasley was a kind and caring father but he said a lot of things before thinking about them. Rose knew that her father would love her and care about her even if she was put in Slytherin but she still hoped that she would be sorted into Gryffindor or anything else that wasn't Slytherin just to make him happy.

Rose heard a creaking noise and turned to look toward her door which had slowly started to swing forward. Standing in the door frame was her cousin, Albus Severus Potter who looked much like his father: The famous Harry Potter. He had dark hair that stuck up all over and green eyes that glimmered. Unlike his father, Albus didn't wear glasses; that had been a trait passed onto James Sirius Potter (his older brother). His sight, much like his mother (Rose's aunt Ginny) was nearly perfect.

Albus was also starting Hogwarts tomorrow with her and, for the past few days, his older brother, James Sirius Potter, had teased him and taunted him.

"You'll get sorted into Slytherin!" Rose had recalled James saying a few hours ago during lunch. "Only bad people are sorted there."

He had taunted and teased and Albus had whined and remarked that he wasn't bad, that he wouldn't be bad and that James was wrong. He even exclaimed that he believed James was the bad one, the mean older brother. James had proceeded to make jabs at Albus saying that he wasn't brave enough enough for Gryffindor, he wasn't daring enough, until Aunt Ginny had made it clear that there would be consequences if they didn't quit their bickering.

Her cousin was still just as jittery about going to school as Rose was. Ever since they were young, Albus had a desire to prove himself, to live up to who his father was but he was often impatient and would get frustrated when things didn't work out for him especially if James mocked. Yet, Albus confided in Rose that he would make a name for himself, that someday he would be just as great as the great Harry Potter. The idea of being great is what seemed to drive Albus.

"Hey Rose," Albus stepped into the room and smiled at his cousin but she could see the nervous flicker in his eyes. "We're leaving soon."

"That's a shame," Rose said standing up to hug her cousin who flinched slightly. "I'll see you tomorrow for the train."

Albus smiled and nodded. "Yeah, we should be getting there early. Dad's always excited to see us go off to school."

The two exchanged hugs and Albus slowly left the room closing the door behind. In a few minutes, Rose would be called down to dinner with her mother, father, and brother and they would eat their last dinner before Rose would be gone. The Potters would be in their house having dinner with each other as well, chatting and sharing stories while James teased Albus and Lily cried about wanting to go away to school with her brothers. Rose and Hugo would be going to bed early to get up so that they could get in a muggle car and drive to Kings Cross station with their father at the wheel.

Rose crawled into bed anxious and closed her eyes. It was scary to think that she'd be at Hogwarts and sorted less than twenty four hours from now. For a while, her jitters kept her awake and she couldn't relax enough to sleep. But as it got later into the night, she drifted into sleep and let her dreams consume her.

The morning came so quickly that Rose felt she had just fallen asleep when her eyes shot open to the shouting of her younger brother in the corridor outside her room.

"Rosie! Rosie, mum says breakfast is ready!" Hugo called through the door.

Rose, slowly, sat up and stretched out trying to rub the tired from her eyes before she stood up. Almost instantly she remembered that today was her first day at school: at Hogwarts. The nerves flooded back to her and she quickly threw her items into her bag even though they weren't quite ready to leave. She heard her brother's voice as he called her, once again, from downstairs and tore from the room to get her breakfast.

She shook slightly as she entered the kitchen and wondered if she might just vomit if she tried to eat, a queasy feeling in her gut. The Weasley kitchen was very organized with everything put away neatly. It was clean and her father had cast a few charms to make some of the items wash themselves. In the center of the room, a table sat with four people at it, their plates full.

Hugo, her mother, her father, and her grandfather Weasley sat at the table. Grandad Weasley was the first to look up when his granddaughter entered the room.

"Big day," He smiled at her. "I remember when I first went to Hogwarts."

"Doubt it," Her father said and received a glare from his own father. "Only joking, dad."

"You best be," Arthur Weasley scolded his son. "Your mother and I are not as old as you make us out to be."

"Sleep well Honey?" Her mother asked as Rose took her seat at the table.

It wasn't the best sleep that Rose had ever had and she wasn't going to lie about it.

"It could have gone better," She replied as she picked up her fork and started to eat the eggs her father had made for them.

They were slightly burnt but she paid no heed to it or to the fact that her father leaned over the Grandad Weasley and muttered: "See, somebody likes my cooking."

They all sat in silence for a few minutes with each other. Rose tried to finish her toast before standing up abruptly.

"You okay?" her father asked her.

"I'm going to go pack," She said and scurried off to her room missing another one of her father's comments: "I told you she was nervous."

Rose stood in her room alone for a moment and stared at her already packed trunk. Stepping over to it, she started to organize it and straighten things out so that it looked neat but she was really just trying to distract herself from the fear of her first day at school. Her mother came into the room and sat on the bed watching her with compassionate eyes.

"I notice you're a bit nervous," She said. "I was too on my first day. Everyone normally is."

Rose wasn't sure how to respond. Of course, she knew that everyone was nervous but knowing that didn't change how she felt either.

"What if I get sorted wrong?" She voiced. "What if I fail?"

"Sorted wrong?" Hermione shook her head. "The sorting hat is never wrong, dear. And no matter what house you're in, your father and I will love and support you. Really. As for failing, I don't think you're going to but if you do, we're not going to disown you. You're smart, Rose."

Rose stood up and hugged her mother tightly clinging to her the way she did when she was once very small. Hermione held her daughter in her arms comfortingly and kissed her forehead.

"Thank you, mum," Rose murmured softly.

Hermione smiled. "Now, let's get your trunk down stairs so we can put it in the car and make sure you give your grandad a hug before you leave."

Rose did as she was told and, within the hour, they were off on the road towards Kings Cross Station. Her stomach was turning with her nerves faster as each second passed but Hugo, who sat beside her in the car, seemed fascinated with everything that was going on. He was very interested in muggle gadgets especially cars and with how they worked. He even read newspaper articles about them and magazines and, whenever they went to visit their mother's parents, Grandad Granger let him watch car races with him or even took him out and showed him things about the car that sat in the Granger garage.

It was the first time Ron weasley had driven a muggle car with his wife and children. He had received his driver's license not too long ago and was both eager and hesitant to show off what he could do on the road. Hermione had faith in her husband and kept telling him to stay calm and that he was doing well and shouldn't be so panicked. Hugo was absolute ecstatic about this entire car trip.

They arrived at Kings Cross at around thirty minutes past ten and Ron helped Rose get her trunk from the back of the car while Hermione went to find a trolley for them to put it on with the rest of her belongings. Before long, they were inside and past the barrier to platform 9 3/4. Rose's heart sank slightly as she looked up at the scarlet Hogwarts Express and it became a bit more real to her that this was happening; she would be on her way to Hogwarts soon with her cousins.

She looked at her mother who was smiling and started to walk over to another family on the platform: The Potter family. There stood Albus and Lily looking around until their eyes met the Weasleys that were approaching. Albus looked a little pale and uneasy and Rose understood why.

"Made it okay?" Aunt Ginny asked as she and her sister in law embraced each other.

"Yeah," Hermione said. "Ron's driving was wonderful."

Ginny and Ron exchanged quick hugs and Ron remarked: "I wasn't too bad."

"Look over there," Hermione suddenly said and they all turned towards to where a blonde man, who was slightly balding, stood with a young blonde boy.

The man exchanged glances with the three adults and a quick nod of his head before turning back to his son.

"So that's little Scorpius," said Ron staring at Draco Malfoy. "Don't act very friendly with him Rosie. Make sure you beat him on every test."

Rose was looking at the boy his father had named Scorpius. He looked like his father, the same blonde hair and eyes though his face was soft like his mother; she stood beside him straightening his collar and brushing any sort of dirt from his robes. For a moment, the two locked eyes but Rose looked away quickly and, instead, acted as if she were more focused on her trunk.

Uncle Harry had taken Albus to the side and Rose, frowning, wished she could talk to her cousin before she got on the train. Ron took the moment to help her get her trunk on the train which she happily accepted and found the compartment where her cousins, Molly, Lucy, Dominique, Louis, and James, were all sitting together. James smiled out to his little sister who was looking up through the window at him.

"Don't worry, Lily," He called to her. "I'll make sure to bring something back for you."

Albus soon joined their compartment and, as the train started rolling out of the station, Rose looked back and waved to her parents and her brother who were smiling encouragingly at her, a proud look on her father's face. It was official, for Rose. She was on her way to Hogwarts with her cousins for her first year at Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry.

After a few minutes, Dominique and her sister stood up saying that they were going to go meet some friends down in another compartment. James was the next to leave and even offered to introduce Albus to a few friends...later, though.

"After the sorting," he said and then left the compartment alone.

Lucy and Molly stuck around long enough to give some encouraging advice about being sorted and then they took off in opposite directions down the train. That left Louis, Rose, and Albus sitting there together in the compartment.

The three of them nervously talked about what houses they might be sorted into. Louis was a year older than Albus and Rose but he had gone to Beaubaton's School in France for a year before deciding he wanted to come to Hogwarts to join the rest of his family. He had blonde hair like his mother and older sister, Victoire while Dominique, who was a fifth year, had red hair like her father.

"Dad says Gryffindor is the typical Weasley house," Louis pointed out. "The likelihood we'll be sorted somewhere else is...slim though not impossible. He even said that he thought he would get sorted into Hufflepuff."

Albus nodded but seemed unsure and a bit shaky. It was all about values, Rose knew. Yes, it was likely that they would be sorted into Gryffindor like the rest of their family had been for generations because they all shared the same values. But it was also possible to be sorted elsewhere. Rose pictured Albus getting called to be in Gryffindor just like the rest of his family but she wasn't sure where she fit.

It was around noon when a woman with a sweets cart rolled by and the three of them all bought a bunch of treats to share with each other. There were cauldron cakes, chocolate frogs, Bertie Bott's Beans, liquorice wands, pumpkin pasties, and much more. They exchanged wizard and witches cards from the chocolate frogs and laughed when they noticed a few that had Harry Potter on it or Ronald Weasley or even Hermione Granger. They all knew the stories of the war fought years ago where Harry Potter had defeated the darkest lord of the time, Voldemort.

The compartment door slid open and the attention turned quickly to see who was coming past. A boy with blonde hair stood in the doorway looking a bit awkward standing there. He was the blonde haired boy that Rose heard to be Scorpius.

"I um..." He started off. "I noticed that you guys have some space in here. May I join you? Everywhere else has filled up."

Albus and Rose exchanged glances and Rose nodded.

"Sure," She said.

He took a seat right next to Louis at the door and all eyes watched him. Slowly, he cleared his throat.

"I'm Scorpius Malfoy," He said softly and extended his hand outward for someone to shake.

Both Albus and Rose were hesitant and Louis raised his brow at his cousins before turning toward Scorpius and gripping his hand in a firm handshake.

"Loius Weasley," He said with a charming smile. "These are my cousins, Albus Potter, and Rose Weasley."

"Potter," Scorpius repeated softly to himself. "Weasley. You guys are related to Harry Potter."

Louis smiled taking up the conversation. "Yes, He's Al's father and the uncle to Rose and myself."

Scorpius seemed relaxed as he and Louis talked. "My father went to school with Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley, and Hermione Granger."

Louis laughed. "That's excellent. So our parents know each other. Were they friends?"

Rose had heard her father talking about Malfoy and the Malfoy family. He said they were a bunch of purebloods who had a history of hating muggle borns and that Draco Malfoy had been rivals with Uncle Harry and her father when they were in school. Scorpius, however, seemed a bit fidgety almost as if he was trying hard to be liked or something.

"Well," Scorpius started. "Dad said they didn't get on at all but I heard he and Harry Potter are not on bad terms at the present."

Albus frowned. "So, what does that mean?"

Scorpius didn't seem to know what to say next. Rose could tell that he felt a little awkward and changed the subject.

"I'm sure we'll all grow to be good friends," She said softly. "We're all in the same year after all."

"Yeah," Louis said to encourage his cousin. "Of course."

Scorpius showed a hesitant smile and everyone went quiet for a moment. Rose searched for a topic to discuss while Albus stared out the window of the train not saying a word. Louis was picking up a chocolate frog while Scorpius stared at the ground.

"So..."Rose said after a while. "What house do you hope to be sorted into?"

Scorpius looked up at her and smiled slightly. "I hope to be in Slytherin or in Ravenclaw. My whole family has been in Slytherin and I want to show that they're not as bad as people think. As for Ravenclaw, I wouldn't mind being in the house of the wise Rowena Ravenclaw."

"All our family is in Gryffindor," Louis said.

For the rest of the train ride, the talked about houses and what they already knew. It made things a little easier and even Albus chimed in but he still seemed lost in thought. They were close to Hogwarts now and the train was slowing down. Night had fallen around them and they all changed into their robes ready to get off and join their fellow Hogwarts students.


	2. The Sorting of a Potter

Chapter two

The train pulled into the station and night was fully upon the students as they exited the train together. The older students seemed to know where to go and Albus saw flashes of green, red, yellow, and blue robes walking past him. Among the crowd, he saw the light shining on a few red headed Weasley family members that were all heading in the same direction as the other students. His brother was among them sporting his red Gryffindor robes and talking to a few friends laughing with his friends not even turning around to see where his younger brother was.

Albus took a deep breath and looked around himself unsure of himself. He wanted so badly to prove that he was good enough to be here despite the teasing his brother gave and the jokes that James seemed to think were funny but were really harsh. He had said that Albus wasn't good enough, that he couldn't learn the simplest spells. But Albus was going to prove that this wasn't true.

The first years were all lead away by Professor Hagrid who Albus knew from his many trips to The Potter house hold to visit his father. The two were long term friends and, from what Albus knew, Hagrid was the one who had brought his father into the wizarding world after being raised by The Dursleys, his father's muggle aunt and uncle. Occasionally, The Potters were brought to see their father's cousin who was married now with a daughter about Lily's age. It wasn't a trip they were particularly happy about especially James and Albus. They didn't really have anything to do there but their father seemed happy to catch up with his cousin after months and months of not seeing him and Lily got along with Daisy Dursley.

Hagrid lead them all away from the train into the darkness that swallowed them. The only thing that could be seenahead of them was Hagrid's lantern floating at the front where he held it to guide them forward to the castle. Albus was jostled by his fellow first years who were just as nervous as he was until he heard the sound of water and realized they had reached a lake. He could see groups of boats across the water docked and waiting for them.

"Okay four t' a boa,'" Hagrid called to the crowd of first years.

Albus and Rose joined a boat with Scorpius Malfoy and another boy who had thick brown hair and dark eyes. This boy and Scorpius exchanged looks and nodded to each other but didn't speak. Albus got the feeling that the two of them knew each other and he swore they boy looked a little familiar as if he had seen him before. The four of them sat in nervous silence as their boat, and all the other boats, glided across the water at Hagrid's call of "forward". Scorpius offered a chocolate Frog to Albus who waved it away. He was so nervous he thought he might vomit if he ate anything.

The castle was suddenly in view to them now and there were many gasps as the students sat in awe of the beautiful site. Even Rose gasped besides Albus. The castle was illuminated with glorious light that Albus had never seen before with a view that was simply breathtaking, magical. He had never seen a building like it and it was much more than his dreams. However, the castle view disappeared as the boats slid through a cave and docked within where Hagrid was the first out of his boat.

The half giant helped many of the first years out of their boats and onto the land with him. Albus got out easily enough and helped out Scorpius while Rose helped the brown haired boy. The boy thanked rRose and he and Scorpius went forward with Albus and Rose joining a few seconds later into the crowd that had gathered at a door. Hagrid knocked three times and the door slowly opened.

A young looking professor with an awkward smile looked out at him and Albus and Rose both recognized him right away. This was Professor Longbottom, the Herbology Professor and Deputy Headmaster who had been friends with Harry Potter and The Weasleys.

"Ah," He said smiling. "Welcome first years. Follow me."

The group followed Professor Longbottom into a dark corridor into the castle and people were either taking in the sight or staring straight ahead at Professor Longbottom. Albus didn't know where to look or what to look at as they were lead to a small area and told to wait there for a few minutes and he took off through a set of doors. From outside, the chatter of the other students could be heard from within, the older students all getting settled before the sorting ceremony and Albus wondered if his brother within was waiting for him and excited that he would be sorted soon.

Albus looked over and saw Scorpius who was talking to the other boy.

"I'm excited, Kris," Scorpius said softly to the boy, Kris.

"I am too," Kris said softly and he noticed Albus was looking at him from far away. He motioned for Albus to join them. "I'm Kristopher Shaklebolt."

"Albus Potter," Albus held out his hand to Kris who took it happily and smiled.

A few minutes later, the first years were lead into the hall by Professor Longbottom and Albus found himself looking around the hall at the house tables where students all around had their gaze on the frightened bunch of first years. Albus felt his stomach flutter as he took a step forward with the rest of the group which all stopped in front of a small stool with a hat sitting atop it. Everyone's attention turned to the hat and, to the surprise of many, it burst into song.

Albus, like everyone else, listened carefully to the hats song and when it had finished, the hall burst into applause. Uncertainly, he looked to his brother, James, who sat at the Gryffindor table and looked at his brother with anticipation in his face. Slowly, Albus turned back to look at where the stool was.

Professor Longbottom stood before the group again and pulled out a scroll of paper.

"When I call your names," He said. "Please come up and take a seat. I will place the sorting hat on top of your head and it will tell you which house you belong to. Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, or Slytherin."

The entire group of first years seemed to tense up, their anticipation growing as they waited for their name to be called to go up one by one.

"Abernathy, Luther"

The first student walked nervously up to the stool. His hair was black and curly, his skin pale as he approached and sat down with the nerves he was feeling gleaming in his eyes. When the hat was placed on his head, he sat up a little straighter as if trying to remain dignified in front of his peers. The hat sat atop his head for about ten seconds before it burst out:

"SLYTHERIN!"

The Slytherin table clapped and cheered as Luther Abernathy rushed off to meet his fellow housemates. Next came "Connor, Able" who was sorted into Hufflepuff and "Corner, Alexander" who was sorted into Ravenclaw. The first Gryffindor was "Finnigan, Isabella" followed by a boy with the same last name and looked similar to her "Finnigan, Sean" and the two seemed quite happy to be sorted together.

Next sorted was a Slytherin by the name of "Hopkin's Jr, Wayne" and the list went on and on sorting many students into the four house.

"Malfoy, Scorpius"

Albus watched as the blonde haired Malfoy walked to the stool. The entire hall was watching, most had probably heard about the Malfoy family and about the events that occurred during the second wizarding war. Malfoy was a name that drew uncertainty. Scorpius sat motionless on the stool as if holding his breath as he waited for the hat to shout out where he belonged.

"SLYTHERIN!"

The hat was pulled away and Scorpius went off to join his house as Albus stood there shaking and trying to figure out in his head where he wanted to be, where he thought he deserved to be. His entire family was sorted into Gryffindor and he didn't want to break that cycle but he wasn't sure he belonged there. He would end up in the shadow of his brother once again, with all the teachers comparing him to James or his father. He looked at Scorpius and, in his mind, knew where he'd end up.

"Potter, Albus"

He looked over at his brother and cousins as he stepped up to the stool. Already, he was feeling a nervous wave in his stomach as if it might explode. The hat came down and covered his eyes so he was only able to see the dark brim.

"Ah," it hissed in his ear and he nearly jumped in surprise. "It's been a while since I've seen a conflicted mind like yours."

He wondered how obvious it was.

"You want a place to belong, a place to grow, a place where you can prove yourself. I do see courage in you, just like your father but you share his uncertain nature. How quaint. Young Potter, where should I put you?"

He thought about Gryffindor and his family in there. He thought about how they would react to the hat declaring that as his house and he wanted that more than ever. But he imagined how he would just seem to fade among the Weasley excitement and he thought then about Slytherin. He was afraid, yes, but he was excited. While he wasn't sure how he felt about Scorpius, Slytherin seemed to fit him.

But that's what scared him the most. He knew that dark wizards came from Slytherin but his father had told him that not all Slytherins were bad or evil.

"SLYTHERIN!"

The house announced it as if Albus had already made up his mind and any noise that could be heard within the Great Hall seemed to leave it as everyone grew quiet. The hat was pulled slowly off of Albus's head and he looked around to find his brother and cousins at the Gryffindor table. They seemed stunned! Slowly, he turned his head to see Rose among the yet to be sorted and she smiled encouragingly at him.

She started to clap and, with her, so did the Slytherin house including Scorpius Malfoy. Professor Longbottom, who seemed a little shaken, patted Albus on the back and he slowly stepped to meet his house mates at the Slytherin table. Sitting down, he looked over at the Gryffindor table and saw his brother's shocked face staring back at him with other Weasley faces trying to figure out what had happened.

Albus missed "Scamander, Leo" get sorted into Ravenclaw along with "Scamander, Lorcan". "Scamander, Lysander" was sorted into Hufflepuff parting Lorcan who appeared to be his identical twin brother.

"Weasley, Louis"

His attention, along with the attention of the rest of the family, snapped back as Louis stepped up to the stool. He looked determined to be sorted into a house here almost as if he was worried that, because of his year at Beauxbatons school, that he wouldn't be able to be sorted into a Hogwarts house in front of everyone. But the school had allowed it and, almost as soon as the hat touched his head, it shouted:

"GRYFFINDOR!"

He sauntered off to the Gryffindor table and it was finally Rose's turn. She gave a nervous look to Albus and then the hat fell over her eyes. A moment later it announced:

"RAVENCLAW!"

Albus smiled slightly to himself and nodded. That had been a good choice, he thought. A few moments later, the head mistress, Alina Rainer who had replaced Minerva McGonagall just two years ago, stood up and smiled.

"So nice to see all of your beautiful faces," She said. "We have a few announcements before the start of term. As a warning to the new students, The Dark Forest on the grounds is off limits to all students. A few of our older students would do well to remember that." Albus saw her eyes dart to James and a boy he was sitting with who chuckled together. "Also, this year, we have a new professor, Professor Angel Ramirez who has come all the way from Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in North America to teach Divinations this year as old Professor Trewlawny has become too ill for her position."

Albus looked at the table as a man with tan skin stood up and gave a small bow and then sat down. The two locked eyes for a moment and Albus found himself in almost a trance like state that he completely missed the rest of Professor Rainer's speech.

"Now," The way her voice said it was so sharp that it pulled Albus from the trance and she was smiling warmly "Let the feast begin!"

Food appeared on the plates before them and Albus ate until he couldn't bear to stuff another piece of food into his mouth. When it appeared that the rest of the school felt the same way, the food vanished and was replaces with dessert. Albus couldn't help himself as he took a few pieces of chocolate pie. He glanced at Scorpius who was talking to the boy from before who Albus had missed in the sorting.

His name was Kristopher, he heard. Kristopher something...he had also been sorted into Slytherin with them. Slowly, it dawned on Albus who the boy was. His name was Kristopher Shakelbolt and he was the adopted son of Kingsley Shakelbolt who had taken the boy in when his parents died.

He and Scorpius seemed to know each other really well and Albus wondered why that was but he didn't bother to ask. It was getting time for the students to be lead off to their common rooms. They sang the school song and were off. The first year Slytherins were brought to their common room in the dungeons by the prefect: Arthur McNair.

Albus felt very full and sleepy by now as he was brought into his dormitory and given a bed. He laid down and noticed Scorpius' bed was on the right of him while Kristopher, or Kris, was to the left. He didn't think too much on it as he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.


	3. After The First Day

Chapter three

Albus laid upon his bed after his first day of classes trying to process everything he had just learned. His head was throbbing with information. Today, the Slytherins had had Herbology with the Ravenclaws so he got to see Rose but that was the only family member that he had been able to talk with all day. His brother had avoided him like he was the plague and his other cousins just didn't seem to be around. Or maybe they were avoiding him too.

Rose seemed to be excited and quite eager to begin. She listened intently to Professor Longbottom as he spoke about his intentions this year and what they would all be learning. Albus tried to soak in the information but his thoughts were on his family and their reaction to his choice to be in Slytherin. By now, his father had probably received many owls about the sorting. He had written his own letter to his father explaining that he had chosen Slytherin over Gryffindor.

The door to their dorm creaked open and in walked Kristopher Shaklebolt with a grin on his face.

"Al," He laughed. "Guess who just got lost on the way here?"

Clearly, the answer was Kris but he was the type of person who waited for acknowledgment to his questions.

"Was it you, Kris?" Albus asked looking up. Kris was quite short but he had a big personality especially for a Slytherin. Albus looked at him and wondered what traits he possessed that made him a Slytherin.

"Yes," Kris smiled sitting down on his bed. "I discovered a secret passage behind a tapestry. It lead me to a small room."

He seemed quite excited about this as he laid back on the bed and kicked off his shoes which fell to the ground with a thud.

For most of the day, Albus had hung around Kris and, many times, Scorpius tried to join them but Albus and Scorpius exchanged very few words with each other. When he was around, Scorpius mostly talked to Kris.

Albus learned that Kris and Scorpius had met when Draco Malfoy, Scorpius's father, had come to the Ministry on some sort of business and had become friends after they started writing to each other.

At that moment, another Slytherin boy who had been sorted with them came into the room. His name was Luther Anbernathy and he was a little taller than the others, his hair was dark, and so were his eyes as if he didn't sleep often.

"A letter came for you, Potter. It was sitting on the sofa in the common room," He muttered throwing the letter at the foot of Albus's bed before collapsing on his own in the corner.

Albus reached for it quickly and opened it:

 _Dear Albus,_

 _I'm so proud of you for being sorted into Slytherin and your mother is too. We've received a lot of letters from teachers and friends and I've been asked to do an interview about how I feel about my son being in Slytherin for both Witch Weekly and The Daily Prophet. I've declined both. The most important thing to me is that you're happy being who you are and that you feel you can trust me with this. If you're brother gives you a hard time about it, I'll deal with him. Your mother and I love you very much, Al. Write to me when you can and good luck with all of your classes._

 _Love, dad._

Albus slowly looked over the letter again and nodded satisfied with the answer. His father accepted him, his mother accepted him, that's all he really wanted. He still wondered which qualities made him a Slytherin but he knew that this was the house that he belonged. To him, that was perfectly okay. He was sure, however, that James would have a problem with this the entire year and he was prepared for the taunts, the teasing, the hard time that his brother would most likely give. He almost felt ready for it.

The door opened and, this time, in walked Scorpius Malfoy who seemed to be in a rather good mood. He walked over to his bed, sat down, and looked at the others in the room.

"Evening," He smiled and kicked his own shoes off. "What have we got going on?"

Albus stuffed his letter into his trunk without responding not sure what to say. Kris, however, seemed more than happy to reply.

"Well," He straightened himself up. "I was just telling Albus about how I just found a secret passageway and then Anbernathy came in and gave Albus a letter. You haven't missed much."

Scorpius looked over at Albus as if he had just noticed that he was here.

"Oh yeah," He said with a stiff nod of his head. "I just saw your brother outside waiting for you. I'm not sure what makes him think you'll come out."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Albus narrowed his eyes slightly and wondered if Scorpius was trying to offend him.

Scorpius shrugged in response and pulled off his shirt laying back on his bed. Albus felt put off but decided against saying something and, instead, pushed himself off of his bed and started for the door. He walked through the common room where there was little chatter among the students in there. He pushed open the door to the common room and, sure enough, James Sirius, clad in his Gryffindor robes, stood outside and jumped startled when he saw his brother.

"Al," He said softly as if speaking too loudly would cause a problem. "Fancy meeting you here."

"James," Albus said in reply. "This is the Slytherin common room. If you missed last night, I was sorted into Slytherin, you know?"

"Yes, right, of course," Was all that James could manage to say in response to that.

The two brothers stared at each other in awkward silence for a few moments before Albus found the words to continue the conversation. James seemed to be at a loss for them and waited for Albus to be the one to speak rather than doing it on his own.

"Why did you come down here?" Albus said crossing his arms. "You seemed to avoid me all day. I would have liked some support from my brother."

"It was a shock to me," James replied softly. "I didn't think there was a Potter in existence that would ever be sorted into Slytherin."

Albus frowned and shook his head. "Does it matter what house I'm in?"

"You're in the same house as that Scorpius guy, right?" It was almost as if he had changed the subject but Albus wasn't sure if that's what he intended to do or if it just sort of happened.

"Yeah," Albus said though that was pretty clear. "He's the one who told me you were out here."

"He's kind of a prick," James sneered. "He was quite rude to me, quite arrogant too."

Albus didn't doubt that and, even if he did, he was trying to find a reason to dislike Scorpius. He didn't know why but he felt that there was something about Scorpius that he was supposed to hate, as if the former rivally between his father and Al's own was supposed to pass onto him or something. Maybe he was just being stupid and paranoid about Malfoy. He had heard stories of the Malfoy family being full of dark wizards and that their manner still had plenty of dark magical object there. But Albus couldn't find a reason to hate Scorpius the way his father hated Draco.

"I don't have much of an opinion on him," Albus replied with a shrug.

James scratched his head and frowned. "I saw him with Rose a couple of hours ago. They seemed to hit it off."

He wasn't sure why James was bringing this up but he dismissed it with a shrug.

"You bothered by that, Al?" James asked raising his brow curiously.

Albus didn't answer his brother. Instead, he turned back towards his common room and started for the door. James started to call after him but stopped himself and called that he'd see Albus tomorrow for breakfast. Albus walked through the common room right back to his dorm and laid on his bed. Kris was already curled up with the curtains drawn around him like a few of the others were including Luther Abernathy.

Scorpius was still up with a book open on his lap and Albus looked over at him. He was writing something but it wasn't clear what it was. They hadn't been assigned homework yet from any of their teachers so it wasn't homework. Albus quickly changed into his pajamas and pulled the curtains on his bed around himself. He curled up under the covers and tried to fall asleep.

At least, he thought to himself as he drifted off, James didn't hate him for being sorted into Slytherin. The thought comforted him as he fell asleep among his housemates.

Albus woke in the morning to the sound of Kris falling out of his bed and yelping in pain. In fact, it woke up the entire room and several Slytherin first years jumped out of their beds to see what was wrong only to hear Kris, who laid on the floor, apologizing profusely for waking everyone up. It wasn't much use going back to sleep now as it was just about time for breakfast and many of them started dressing for the day while others lay still on their bed.

Albus was among those who got up. He dressed quickly and ran into the common room as he fastened his robes and stuffed his wand into his pocket. He wanted to meet James for breakfast and was quick to leave the common room to do so. Walking up from the dungeons and entering the great hall, he saw that there weren't many other students around, maybe just a handful sat at the four tables.

At the Gryffindor Table, James sat with Louis (who didn't seem very happy to be awake at the moment) and Dominque who was chatting with another girl at the table but kept turning back to her cousin and brother and mumbling things to them. Albus carefully walked over and the two other Gryffindors looked up at him confused.

"Um, may I join you?" He was looking at his brother with pleading eyes.

"Pull up a seat, Al," James grinned at his brother gesturing for him to sit down them. "I was just telling Louis here was transfiguration was like at Hogwarts. He has it later today with the rest of the second years. Professor Cornwell is one of the best I've seen."

James was really into transfiguration and Albus has heard him praise Professor Cornwell at home many times. James had also had the pleasure of being a student when Minerva McGonagall had taught here before she had retired and Rainer had taken her place.

"I have transfigurations on Thursday," Albus said softly.

"I'm sure you'll do well," James said as he piled eggs onto his plate and started piling some for his brother.

They talked and laughed as the hall started filling with students for breakfast. Soon, James left and Albus went to the Slytherin table leaving Louis with his sister and cousins who were starting to join them. At the Slytherin table, Kris and Scorpius were talking just as the mail arrived overhead. A letter was dropped right in front of him and he reached for it curiously. Written on the front was his name in a scroll he didn't recognize.

He turned it over and opened the envelope.

 _Dear Mister Albus Severus Potter,_

 _Your request to join the_ _ **Quill Pals Exchange Letter Program**_ _has been accepted. You'll be receiving a letter from your Quill Pal, Cantor White, within the next few days. The information we are providing about Young Master White is as followed:_

 _He's a fourth year student from Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in North America interested in learning more about the school that inspired his own._

 _Hoping you have a wonderful school year,_

 _Abigail Wentworth_

 _Magical Youth Communications Expert_

 _Communications Department of the Ministry for Magic_

Albus put the letter in his cloak pocket and looked at Kris who seemed curious as to what it was that Albus had just read. A few weeks ago, Albus had been convinced by his mother to apply to this new program of communication between young witches and wizards from around the world to promote strong relationships between the future generations. It was something he was forced to sign up for but he was starting to look forward to it.

"Let's just go to class," Albus said standing up.

The other two nodded and got up following Albus to the Dungeons for their potions lesson with the Gryffindor first years.


	4. Lessons

Chapter four

Scorpius seemed to struggle in transfigurations more than any of the other class. The professor, Professor Cornwell, seemed rather stern with him compared to the potions master, Professor McBain, who seemed to think Scorpius was a genius for his first year at potions making and Professor Hawthorne thought he was brilliant at charms. But, Professor Cornwell didn't seem to like him too much and he wasn't confident with his performance after his first few transfigurations classes.

After their third week of classes, Scorpius felt pretty good with all of his classes except for transfiguration and worked hard to maintain his good standings with his teachers. He noticed a bit of a hesitation with him when he was in Herbology but he knew that Professor Longbottom had gone to school with his father and he also knew that his father wasn't too nice to him. However, Professor Longbottom tried to be nice to him especially since he had started to grow close to Rose Weasley.

Scorpius and Albus were a bit rough when it came to being friends. Albus was a bit hesitant because of most of his family. His brother, James Potter, didn't seem to like Scorpius and would often shoot glares towards him when the two passed each other in the corridors. It unnerved Scorpius but Albus wasn't like that. Albus wasn't usually the first to acknowledge Scorpius in a room (that was usually Kris) but he would talk to him when approached. He was polite though he seemed to think about his words before he said them when he spoke to Scorpius while he was more open with Kris.

Kris was a different story. He and Scorpius were as close as Kris was to Albus. Out of class, they joked around, gossiped, and studied together when they could. Kris was often lazy but he was easily excited. When he found something in their work that intrigued him, he worked harder and often faster. His best class was astronomy and he seemed to know more than most of the students going in. Sometimes, Scorpius wondered if Kris felt better being lost in the stars.

As the weeks went by, everything seemed to become more natural. Scorpius, Albus, and Kris all woke up in the boys dormitory with their fellow Slytherin first years: Wayne Hopkins, Jesse Tyler, Luther Abernathy, Morgan McDough, and Ernie Keisgo. They'd go into the common room to see their fellow Slytherins, from years ahead of them chatting or studying before class, and would often go to breakfast together. Sometimes, Albus left before them to send a letter or sometimes he'd go off to be with his family at the Gryffindor table. On days they had Herbology, Rose would came over from the Ravenclaw table and talk with the three boys about their lesson from last class or their homework assignment.

They'd all go to their class usually together and often ate lunch together. Albus was always the exception as he never seemed to be around when they'd eat lunch. Scorpius wondered if he ever ate lunch at all. He wasn't sure where Albus went around this time but he guessed it was somewhere important or something. He'd always show up to their next class but he'd look bothered or uneasy which he refused to answer questions about even when Kris was the one who asked him.

In the evening, they'd return to the common room and relax for a half hour before it was time for dinner which they usually always sat together for. Albus was the quietest at dinner and usually seemed to be somewhere else but Scorpius didn't seem to mind it. Kristopher Shaklebolt was entertaining enough to make even Albus Potter laugh when he was down. When dinner was done, they'd all go into the common room and work on their homework. Sometimes, they worked together but Albus seemed to prefer working alone.

By the time Halloween had come and gone and November was beginning, Scorpius could hardly believe he had been at Hogwarts for two months. The first of November was a chilling day and felt especially cold in the Slytherin common room. Going up to breakfast felt warm for Scorpius as he sat down next to Kris at the table.

"Have you seen Albus?" Were the first words out of Kris's mouth as he looked up at the blonde haired boy.

Scorpius looked confused. "No, he was gone before I left."

"And before I left," Kris said picking up his fork. "Nobody seems to have seen him leave this morning."

Scorpius frowned as Rose Weasley came over and sat down across from them. She seemed in high spirits as she grabbed a plate and the usually Slytherin fifth and sixth years whispered something about how Ravenclaw's should stay at their own table but Kris shot them a look and they merely rolled their eye looking away to their breakfast plates.

"Good morning, boys," Rose smiled at the two of them taking up a piece of toast. "We have Herbology this morning together and I just wanted to know if you guys did the homework?"

"We did," Kris smirked. "It took some time but I managed to settle Scorpius down so we could do our work."

"Oh sure, Kris," Scorpius laughed. "You wanted to play Exploding Snap all night. I convinced you to do the homework."

Rose chuckled softly pulling out their Herbology book from her bag and putting it on the table. Slowly, she flipped through the pages to what they had been talking about their last class but stopped abruptly and looked around the table.

"Where's Albus?" She asked frowning.

Both Scorpius and Kris shrugged simultaneously and Kris said: "We haven't seen him since we went to bed last night."

"Maybe he went off to send a letter before class," Scorpius said. "He sure writes home a lot."

Rose slowly nodded and looked down at her book scanning the page she was on slowly and mumbled something. Scorpius frowned slightly and looked at Kris who was leaning back slightly and picking up a piece of toast looking it over.

"Maybe we'll see him in class?" Rose said after a while picking up her book.

Scorpius nodded and the two stood up taking up their bags. Kris noticed and pushed himself to his feet stuffing the toast into him mouth before grabbing his bag. The three of them started out of the great hall and towards the doors leading back to the grounds. They walked towards the greenhouse, Scorpius and Kris talking quietly behind Rose about how strange it was that Albus hadn't showed up for breakfast that morning and trying to count up the number of letters Albus sent each month.

They soon joined a group of first year Ravenclaws who seemed a little disgruntled with two Slytherins there but also seemed happy to see Rose. In the greenhouse two, the rest of the Slytherins were waiting and Albus was among them.

Scorpius, Rose, and Kris sat down with Albus who was reading his class book quietly to himself. He flinched when they sat down and slowly closed his book.

"Oh, hey guys," He said softly. "How was breakfast?"

Rose raised her brow. "Were you sending another letter?"

Albus put his book in his bag and opened his mouth slowly but wasn't able to speak as Professor Longbottom entered and smiles at everyone.

"Today we'll be learning about about Shrivelfig," He said to his students as he pulled out a purple plant. "You will be using this in potions class if you haven't already. Now, can anyone tell me what's so special about this plant?"

Rose raised her hand but Scorpius beat her to the answer.

"It has aggressive roots that can help the plant survive in the harshest conditions and is used in shrinking solutions," He said looking up at Professor Longbottom.

"That's good, Mr. Malfoy," Their professor said. "Take five points to Slytherin."

He went on to explain all about the Shrivelfig enthusiastically but Scorpius caught Albus out of the corner of his eye. He was writing something on a scrap piece of parchment. When Albus noticed Scorpius starting is narrowed his eyes and rolled up the parchment tucking it in his bag and looked at Professor Longbottom pretending to pay attention. Scorpius raised a brow but shook his head returning to the lecture.

For the rest of the lesson, Albus looked unfocused as if he'd rather be somewhere else. Scorpius didn't say anything to him about it but he kept giving him looks that were not returned. Albus disappeared right after their lesson and didn't show up to dinner that night. When they returned to the dorm room, he was already asleep with the posters drawn around his bed. Scorpius was tempted to ask him if he was alright as he sat down on his bed but didn't think Albus would reply.

When he and Kris went into the common room together to work on their homework, Scorpius turned to his friend.

"Is Albus angry with me?" He asked softly and Kris raised his brow.

"Why would Albus be angry at you?" Kris asked picking up his book. "He's probably just in a mood or something. Maybe his brother upset him or maybe he's mad at me. I did say to him the night before last something rude about him snoring."

Kris acted like he was unconcerned but Scorpius could see something in his eye. Kris and Albus had become closer than Albus and Scorpius had since they started and often Albus told things to Kris before he told Scorpius.

"He's been very closed up lately," Scorpius said. "And I caught him writing a letter during Herbology."

Kris nodded slowly. "Yeah, he seems very obsessed with writing letters. He won't tell me who they're sent to but he said something about a quill pals program set up by the ministry. I don't know what that means but maybe whoever he's writing to is more interesting than us. Like that's plausible."

Kris laughed and looked at Scorpius as if he expected him to laugh with him. When he didn't, Kris shook his head and pulled his book closer to himself and mumbled a question about the assignment. The two worked diligently and only spoke when they had a question they couldn't figure out. It felt a little awkward but, when they were done, Kris cracked a joke and went off to the boy's dorm. Scorpius stayed behind a moment and looked into the fire that didn't seem to make the room any hotter.

A few of the fourth years were talking to each other in the corner and a group of first year girls stood together. Scorpius recognized Andra Wilson, a girl who had once been partners with Scorpius in potions. She was very cold towards most people but Kris admitted he thought she was quite pretty. Scorpius told him that he had a very different idea of what made a pretty girl and his thoughts had trailed to Rose Weasley.

Scorpius and Rose seemed to hit it off pretty well as friends. A few people in the Weasley/Potter family didn't seem to like how close they had gotten especially James Sirius Potter who especially didn't like Scorpius hanging around his younger brother. It was almost like James was protective of Albus but Scorpius felt there was another reason that James acted this way. Maybe that's why Albus had seemed to avoid him recently. Maybe it had nothing to do with the letters but, rather, with his older brother not wanting the two around each other.

"Scorpius," He heard a voice besides him and looked up to see Kris had returned. "Are you coming to bed? We have potions tomorrow morning and Professor McBain wouldn't want you falling asleep in the middle of his lecture."

Scorpius nodded closing up his book and putting it in his bag with his quills and parchment. He and Kris went to their dorm and Scorpius put his things down changing out of his robes into his sleeping garments.

"Night, Kris," He said.

"Night, Scorp," Kris replied.


	5. Albus and His Letters

Chapter Five

Potions the next morning was very dull. The Slytherins and the Gryffindors spent the entire lesson listening to Professor McBain lecture about the effects of Pepperup Potions and how one saved his life once. It wasn't Kris that started to drift off to sleep during class. Instead, it was Albus. But it was no surprise to Scorpius that Albus was tired. When Scorpius found Albus in the morning, he was asleep in the common room by the fire.

Unlike what Scorpius had thought when he had gone to bed, Albus had not been asleep in his bed last night. He had returned to the common room late, somehow easily making it there without getting caught or a detention which Scorpius couldn't believe. He had sat down to study at one of the tables and fallen asleep with his book open on the table and a piece of parchment laying unmarked before him. When he woke, he was a little disoriented from lack of sleep but insisted he go to class with Kris and Scorpius.

The three of them had made their way to class after breakfast. Albus had hardly ate and even said he wasn't actually feeling hungry. Sitting down in their chairs, Albus yawned and pulled out his book but didn't say anything. In fact, he had hardly spoke all morning besides telling Kris and Scorpius about getting in late last night. Something was going on with Albus and Scorpius was determined to find out what it was that was bothering him no matter what the cost was. It had to be something big enough to keep him out late and keep him from sleeping properly.

Kris, who was sitting next to Albus, shook his arm gently and whispered "Al!" sharply to jolt him awake without getting Professor McBain's attention. Albus woke with a start and looked around shaking his head. He whispered a "thank you" to Kris and picked up his quill to start taking notes again until the bell rang ending the class. As the other students went off to get to their next class, Transfiguration for Gryffindor and Charms for the Slytherins, Albus put his quill in his back and packed up his book. Both Kris and Scorpius stayed behind for him.

"You okay, Al?" Kris asked.

It took a few seconds for Albus to respond. It could have been that he was tired, that he was thinking of a response, or that he just didn't want to respond to the two of them. But, eventually, he did.

"Yeah," He said softly getting to his feet. "Just tired, really."

"You should go back to the common room and get some sleep," Scorpius said to him.

"We'll tell Professor Hawthorne that you're ill," Kris offered.

Before they left the room, they had convinced Albus to agree and then went off to the charms classroom to meet their fellow Slytherins. Scorpius and Kris, as they always did, sat down next to each other and pulled out their wands and feathers. Today, they were going to try levitating feathers. They had been practicing all week the movement and now they were ready to add the incantation to levitate.

"Too bad Al is missing this," Kris said and grinned practicing the motion one last time before Professor Cornwell stepped to the front of the room.

"Okay everyone," Professor Hawthorne said pulling out her wand and tapping her desk to get the attention of the class. "Today we're going to add the incantation to our movement. Remember, it's "Swish and Flick" movement. The incantation I will be teaching you all is Wingardium Leviosa. Repeat after me but do not move your wands until I tell you to."

The class echoed the incantation and Professor Hawthorne smiled at them.

Professor Hawthorne was a dark haired witch who wore red robes most of the time. She always encourage students to do their best and seemed happy with them no matter what they did.

"You're ready to try it out," She smiled. "Place your feather in front of you and use the movement and incantation. Let's see you get those feather's up."

There were shouts of the incantation and the flourish of wands all around the room. Scorpius and Kris had both managed to levitate their feathers even if only a centimeter off the desk. Luckily, they weren't the only ones that struggled. Nobody managed to get their feather's very high off the desk and, despite this class failure, Professor Hawthorne seemed very pleased when the bell rang.

"Good job, class," She smiled. "Enjoy your lunch. For homework, please write a twelve inch piece on how you felt trying to levitate your feathers and your accomplishments on it."

The class left for the great hall. Scorpius and Kris, however, decided to check in on Albus. The common room was empty besides a few of the seventh year students studying during their lunch break. They reached their dorm room and noticed the four posters pulled around Albus's bed.

"Al," Kris said approaching it. "Are you up?"

There was no response. Scorpius pulled back the curtain to see if Albus was truly there, not wanting a repeat of last night. When he looked at the bed, he found that it was empty and unslept in.

"Kris, he's gone somewhere," Scorpius said and Kris frowned. "Should we go and look for him?"

No sooner had those words left his mouth when the door to their dormitory opened up and Albus stepped inside holding a letter in his hands. He noticed Scorpius and Kris and stopped in his tracks. He looked at them with tired eyes as he turned the letter over in his hands.

"Hello," His voice was quiet. "What are you guys doing here?

"What are you doing out of bed?" Kris asked. "You were supposed to be resting. You're tired, Albus."

"I got a letter," Albus said holding it up. "I just wanted to read it."

Scorpius raised his brow. "I think it's best that you go to sleep, Albus. We'll tell you what you missed in class later but you really need the sleep. So put down the letter and lay down."

"You're not my dad," Albus muttered but laid down on his bed. "Enjoy Transfigurations."

Scorpius and Kris promised they'd tell Albus all that he missed in class and then went off to lunch together. The dorm was now quiet with just Albus laying there on his bed clutching the letter in his hand and waiting until he was sure that his friends would not return to the dorm. Once he was sure that they were gone, he sat up on his bed and turned the envelope open to read the front of it.

It was addressed to him with familiar writing on the front. He knew who it was from by that: Cantor White. Cantor White was Albus's QuillPal from America who he had been corresponding with for the past few weeks. He was a fourth year in the house known as Thunderbird and he tried to explain the different houses to Albus but Albus had still been confused about how people were sorted at Ilvermorny, just as Cantor had said he was confused the way sorting worked at Hogwarts. Albus once tried to ask what the equivalent of each Ilvermorny house was to each Hogwarts house but Cantor had said he didn't seem to find one.

The two sent letters discussing their classes and their teachers. Everything that Cantor was doing seemed to be really exciting and advanced compared to the first year magic. Some of the things that Cantor talked about, however, seemed odd to Albus. Cantor talked about No-Majes a lot. A No-Maj, which was stranger to Albus, was a nonmagical person, the American equivalent of a muggle. He said that he had a No-Maj friend that he often told things about the wizarding world to.

In his last letter, Albus told Cantor about how his older brother was giving him a hard time about being in Slytherin. Even though the two of them were on good terms with each other, James constantly made jabs at Albus for being in the house that dark wizards before him had been in. He, quickly, tore open the envelope and pulled out the response from his friend.

 _Albus,_

 _I'm really sorry to hear about your brother. He sounds like quite the ass and, if I were there, I'd give him a piece of my mind. After all, he and I would be in the same year. I think it's quite odd that he dislikes that you're in a different house. I heard stories of Salazar Slytherin and one of his descendants is actually the founder of Ilvermorny. I don't know the stories of Hogwarts the way you probably do but he doesn't sound like a bad guy. So what if Voldemort had been in Slytherin? That doesn't mean that you or your friends are going to end up dark wizards._

 _We haven't had too many dark wizard scares here in America. Not since Grindelwald was here to invoke some sort of wizarding war. None of the Ilvermorny houses are necessarily connected to dark wizards. Houses shouldn't be associated with the wizards that have been in it but, instead, what they value. Doesn't Slytherin value the ambitious and cunning? Those are actually pretty good traits. Your brother should be happy about that instead of putting you down for it._

 _I won't be able to write to you until Christmas, Al. But I've already got a Christmas gift picked out for you. I already expect that you're going to enjoy it. It's something I've been working on for a while. I'll send it over at Christmas. Trust me, though, you don't have to give me anything in return as a gift. All you have to do is wish me a Merry Christmas._

 _I do hope that everything works out with your brother and with your friends. I do want to say that I am glad you and I have been able to make acquaintances._

 _Cantor W._

Albus got up off his bed and put the letter into his trunk at the end. He'd write back tomorrow but Scorpius and Kris were right. He needed to rest. He placed the letter in a small pile next to a moving photo of Cantor White. In the picture, Cantor had blonde hair and a set of inquiring eyes. He wore a pair of thin framed glasses on pale skin and he smiles brightly at Albus from his picture. He would often laugh at someone who was out of the picture but he always returned to the center to look at Albus.

After dinner, Scorpius went to see Rose outside of the library. She was sitting on a bench with a book in her hands reading quietly when he approached. Looking up at him, she put the book down besides her and smiles.

"Hey Scorpius," She said. "What are you doing here?"

Scorpius smiled. "You made a promise to me that you'd teach me a few things about transfiguration. I'm not too good, afterall."

Rose laughed and stood up. "I know a good classroom to practice in."

She grabbed her books and brought Scorpius to an empty classroom on the third floor. The two of them places their bags to the side of the room and pushed the desks out of their way. Rose showed Scorpius how to transform a match into a needle. It took him almost an hour but, eventually, the match began to turn silver for him. He laughed excitedly and looked at Rose.

"I did it!" He smiled happily as he raised it above his head to examine it in the light. "I can't wait to show Professor Cornwell that I can actually do this. I'm so bad in her class."

Rose smiled and took the needle placing it back onto the desk in front of Scorpius. "Nice job. Now turn it back."

"Turn it back?" Scorpius questioned and when Rose nodded Scorpius groaned pointing his wand at the needle.

After another half an hour, the needle had successfully turned back into a working match. Rose even tested it. Scorpius thanked Rose and promised he'd help her with whatever he worst class was before he ran out of the room. He doubted that Rose even had a bad class but he knew he had to do something in return for this favor.

As he ran off to the Slytherin common room, he bumped into one of the professors. As he stumbled backwards, he recognized this professor as Professor Ramirez who had come to Hogwarts from Ilvermorny in the United States. Professor Ramirez raised his brow at Scorpius and shook his head.

"Careful where you're walking, Young Malfoy," His tone was dark with his American Accent. "You could get hurt."

Scorpius was unsettled by the way he said that but he nodded slowly and said "Yes, sir."

He slowly pulled away and kept going towards the dungeons. When he reached the common room, Kris was sitting there with Albus playing a game of chess. Scorpius went over to them and pulled up a chair.

"Where have you been?" Kris asked before calling for his knight to move to E4.

"I was practicing transfiguration with Rose," Scorpius said and looked at Albus. "A little less tired?"

Albus did look much better than he had, like he had actually slept. He nodded at Scorpius briefly before calling his bishop to E4 taking out the knight.

"Yeah, I slept until Kris came back in," Albus said. "I'm still a little tired but I'm awake now."

Scorpius nodded and started at the chess board still thinking about Professor Ramirez.

"You okay, Scorp?" Kris asked as he check mated Albus.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Scorpius said leaning back in his chair. "I ran into Professor Ramirez a few minutes ago."

"Literally?" Albus yawned and Scorpius nodded. "Did you get in trouble?"

"He told me to be careful or I'd get hurt," Scorpius looked at the two of them.

"I wouldn't worry about it," Kris said as he packed up the chess board. "We should get to bed. We have a long day tomorrow."


	6. Chess

Chapter Six

Of all the professors at Hogwarts, Professor Ramirez was one of the strangest. While he was too young to take Ramirez's class, Scorpius noticed how Ramirez acted when he was around the other professors. He was stiff, quiet, with a stern look about him that seemed to say that he was dangerous. He had a reputation, by his new students for giving lengthy but rare detentions. Nobody ever talked about his detentions aloud as far as Scorpius knew. It was as if most people were afraid to.

That was unsettling to Scorpius. After his little run in with this professor, Scorpius found he thought quite a bit about Ramirez and his detentions. He wondered what it would be like to get one of them...but he thought better of it. Nobody wanted a detention and Scorpius had managed to make his way nearly half way through the school year and still didn't have a detention from any of his professors.

He found himself walking the corridors back to the Slytherin common room from class and that's when he heard something. Someone was arguing with someone from a nearby classroom. Scorpius edge forward to the door which was ajar. As he stepped closer, he recognized the voice of Professor Ramirez, his American accent standing out.

"It's not here," He heard. "That girl lied to us."

Scorpius frowned and looked into the room. Professor Ramirez was bent over the fire place talking into it. Scorpius couldn't see who he was talking to and tried to move forward but Ramirez must have sensed him because he flinched and looked up.

Scorpius quickly ducked out of the way and ran down the corridor. When he reached the common room, Kris was sitting by the fire eagerly waiting for him. When he noticed Scorpius, he frowned and stood up concerned.

"What's wrong? You're out of breath."

Scorpius explained what he had heard and when he said that he felt Ramirez was up to something, Kris seemed very skeptical.

"You heard him say "that girl lied to us" and you think it was something?"

"Well, what else could it be?"

Kris shook his head. "You have a very active imagination, Scorp. Now let's go to dinner."

Scorpius tried to find something to convince his friend but he couldn't think of anything. As Kris left the common room, he started after and out the two boys went into the corridors. As they neared the great hall, Albus came sulking down the stairs with a slip of parchment in his hand.

Kris turned to him: "Another letter?"

Albus shook his head and held up the slip, a detention notice.

"Professor Ramirez found a reason to give me detention. I don't even understand the reason."

"I heard his detentions are brutal," Kris said and then realized he had to sound comforting to his friend. "But I wouldn't worry about it too much. Let's get to dinner."

Albus shook his head. "I was supposed to eat with James, Louis, and Rose."

"Fine," Kris said and a smirk crept across his face. "You'll just miss Scorpius's crazy theories about Professor Ramirez."

Albus raised his brow and Kris started to explain what Scorpius had told him before but Scorpius noticed Ramirez out of the corner of his eye and cut Kris off before pulling Kris into the dining hall. The two sat at the Slytherin table, Scorpius watching Professor Ramirez enter with cautious eyes and Kris turning to talk to a third year student.

Ramirez glanced over catching Scorpius's eye quickly before looking away and going toward his seat at the head table. A few minutes passed before Scorpius caught Albus, Louis, and James walking in but Rose Weasley was nowhere to be found among the Potter/Weasley family. Scorpius looked toward the Ravenclaw table and saw her sitting next to a dark haired Ravenclaw second year with dark eyes who had his eyes locked on Kris.

Scorpius nudged Kris. "That guy is looking at you."

Kris waved off Scorpius not turning from his conversation. "I'm the adopted child of Kingsley Shakelbolt, Minister of Magic, and look nothing like him. I get a lot of looks, Scorp."

And that was the end of that.

...

Albus walked into Professor Ramirez's office for his detention a minute late and that was his first mistake. Ramirez took away 20 points from Slytherin and doubled the amount of lines Albus was meant to write. He sat down in the corner and began to write but he wasn't quite sure what it was exactly that he was writing.

Ramirez gave him a parchment with writing on it and told him to copy it down. What was written on the parchment, however, was words written in a different language.

"What does this say?" Albus asked.

And that was his second mistake. "20 more points from Slytherin, Mr. Potter and detention tomorrow night."

Albus sighed and started copying down what he was told to. He had filled half a piece of parchment before he got the courage to ask why he even got detention in the first place.

"Mr. Potter, I told you. You were sneaking about eavesdropping on people. 20 more points from Slytherin and detention for the entire rest of the week."

Albus didn't speak again until he was finished writing. That took about an hour to do and Albus got up to hand in what he had done but Ramirez didn't look too pleased.

"You think you're done, Mr. Potter?"

"I finished the lines."

Ramirez stared him down with dissatisfied eyes. "Lines aren't the only punishment."

The way he said it sounded dangerous and Albus felt uncomfortable. He sat back down and waited for Professor Ramirez to dole out the rest of his punishment.

By the time Albus left Professor Ramirez's office, he was exhausted and it was late. He held in his hand a slip in case another professor walked the halls and gave him detention for being out of bed so late. He stepped through the halls quietly, his shoes hitting the ground softly, and he arrived in the common room where he passed out on a sofa near the fire place.

He didn't remember falling asleep but he was woken by Kris the next morning.

"Al, hey Al!"

Albus jolted awake and looked up at his friend. "Kris? What time is it?"

"It's time for class," Kris, who was all ready for potions, pulled his bag on. "Did you sleep here all night?"

"I got in late from detention," Albus said and got to his feet searching for his bag. "I guess I'm skipping breakfast then."

Kris looked concerned but Albus, who wasn't ready to answer questions, got his bag from his dorm and went out of the common room with Kris following behind him. They went to transfiguration and didn't speak to each other the entire time.

Albus kept thinking about detention, what had happened there and how much he had done for work. Ramirez had been really tough with him and he wasn't sure why. He wasn't even sure why he had received detention in the first place. He had been walking down the corridor after speaking with Professor McBain about a potions assignment when Ramirez showed up out of nowhere and scolded him for sneaking around before handing out a detention.

It was odd for Albus since he had heard that Ramirez gave rare detentions. Why him?

"Al!"

He looked up to see Kris and Scorpius looking curiously at him. "Class is over. It's time for Herbology so get up."

Albus was just as focused in Herbology as he had been in Transfigurations. He had to be lead away to lunch by Kris and Scorpius where he sat awaiting the potions lesson in the afternoon. It was the only thing that would be able to keep him focused before another late night detention with Professor Ramirez which he dreaded.

When the time came, he went to Professor Ramirez's office for a detention he didn't deserve.

...

Unlike her cousin and friends, Rose had had a very plainl day. She went to her classes, spent some time with her cousin, Louis, studying, and even took a nice walk around the cool grounds with Victoire and James. Nothing un-normal about it. When she returned to the Ravenclaw common room that evening, she sat down by the fireplace and took out her book to start on her homework.

A few of the older students were playing wizard's chess at a table nearby. They were laughing and enjoying themselves. All of them seemed very impressed by a second year student who was doing quite well against ever person they put him up against. He had just taken on and beaten the girl who held the title as the Ravenclaw Chess Champion: Alicia Harrington.

Rose didn't know much about this second year: only that his name was Orion and that he spent a lot of time by himself when he wasn't playing chess with the other Ravenclaws. He looked up at her when he had won and the two locked eyes before he stood up, turned away, and walked off to his dormitory. Rose looked at her homework and began again but found it difficult when Orion came out and down the stairs proceeding to sit next to Rose.

"Hi..." His voice was quiet when he spoke and Rose looked at him.

Orion had black hair that covered his ears. His skin was pale and thin and he almost looked sickly. Rose, curious as to why he sat next to her, tilted her head to the side.

"Hi," she responded. "Can I help you?"

He hesitated and then held out his hand awkwardly to her. "My name is Orion, Orion Black."

Rose raised her brow and then took his hand before retracting her own.

"I'm Rose Weasley."

"Pleasure to meet you," He said politely. "I've seen you around and thought I'd introduce myself."

It seemed odd to Rose. What she knew about Orion was that he was shy and quiet. He didn't typically introduce himself. With this interaction, she got a sense of awkwardness but sincerity as if he sincerely wanted to make her acquaintance.

"I've watched you play chess," She said gesturing over to the chess table. "Ravenclaw's chess champion; you're very good."

Orion nodded and looked over at the chess table. He smiled, a smile that looked relaxed unlike the rest of his demeanor. Rose liked the way that he smiled. It reminded her of when she was younger and used to play with her cousin. Her and Albus used to be very close.

Since they had come to Hogwarts, she was seeing less and less of Albus outside of class. He would often be hanging around with his brother or off with Scorpius and Kris. Sometimes, she noticed, nobody seemed to know where Albus got to. But she hadn't thought too much about it until now.

"So," Orion's voice brought her out of it. "Do you play chess?"

Rose smiled and started to talk about how when her father was a first year he and his friends went to save the philosopher's stone and her father took on a chess set charmed by Professor Minerva McGonagall, former headmistress. Orion was impressed especially when he heard that Rose's uncle was Harry Potter, the famous Harry Potter.


	7. Christmas Eve

Chapter Seven

The Winter Holidays came and Albus and James had just returned home to spend Christmas in the Potter house hold. When their father brought them into their house, a house hidden in London, they found their mother and Lily putting up decorations in the drawing room to bring out the spirit of Christmas through the Potter halls.

Ginny Potter looked at her two sons and smiled.

"Welcome home, boys," she smiled and hugged both her sons. "I've made some tea. Can you help your sister finish decorating?"

She hugged James and then kissed Albus on the forehead before going off to another part of the house. Harry Potter looked at the two of his son's.

"I'll get your tea boys," He said. "Your mother is cover a big Quidditch scandal so she's quite busy. I'll help you guys finish."

He, too, left his children with a box of decorations in the middle of the drawing room.

Albus looked at his sister. Lily Luna Potter had grown up quite a bit since the day that they had left for Hogwarts. She smiled at her brothers and threw her arms around James excitedly.

"Oh James, Albus," She exclaimed. "Please tell me all about school so far."

James told Lily about how he spent a lot of time planning pranks on some of the first year students and how he had even convinced one of them to sneak into kitchens with him. Both of them had received detention with McBain when they were caught throwing muffins at the Ravenclaw Quidditch Team. He told Lily about Gryffindor's narrow win against Hufflepuff, with the ten points he had scored just before the snitch was caught.

When it came to Albus, he wasn't sure what to tell his younger sister. He had spent a lot of time corresponding with his Quill Pal in America but he didn't talk to anyone about that. He told some big secrets to Cantor, secrets about his feelings toward his family even. Albus had also been in detention a few times like James but they were detention with Professor Ramirez that he couldn't explain.

So, he started talking about Slytherin house and how it didn't live up to the stereotypes and that the people were actually really accepting. He spoke of Kris and Scorpius and how, at first, he didn't really like them because he had been upset about being stuck in Slytherin but he had grown to enjoy it. He even talked about how good he was in potions which earned him a face from James.

"Bragging about your marks, Albus?" James laughed at him and shook his head. "I do well in my classes but you don't see me telling everyone about them."

It was actually true; James did very well in his classes especially transfigurations. Professor Cornwell often expected Albus to be the same; and while Albus was pretty good at transfigurations, he wasn't on the same level as his brother. However, Albus did better in potions than James and that seemed to make up for it.

"I just don't have pranks to talk about like you do," Albus replied.

"Well maybe I should help you with that," James smirked.

Albus rolled his eyes and started hanging some of the decorations just as his father came into the room carrying a tray with their tea on it. He placed it on the table and pulled out his wand.

"This will go a lot faster if I help," He smiled and waved his wand through the air.

The decorations in the box floated in the air and Lily giggled in excitement and James asked if he could help. Harry, however, replied that he would not let his son do magic outside of school at the age of thirteen.

"Maybe when you're older," He ruffled his eldest son's hair to which James rolled his eyes.

The decorations started to hang themselves all around the room in an orderly fashion. They sparkled and shined as the light him them. Even the ornaments, which laid in a box next to the undecorated tree, floated through the air and hung themselves neatly on the Christmas tree. Harry James Potter seemed quite entertained.

He sat back against the sofa and picked up one of the cups.

"Now," He smiled and motioned for his children to join him. "Tell me all about how school has been."

...

Albus enjoyed being home with his family. On Friday, his Uncle Bill came over with Christmas presents he was dropping off. He wouldn't be around for Christmas because he, aunt Fleur, and their three children would be going to France to visit their other family. He brought over Dominique, Victoire, and Louis to spend time with their cousins while he, aunt Fleur, and his parents sat in the kitchen talking about the wizard word news and other things.

Albus got along well with Louis for the most part. Louis had fun stories to tell about many different things. He had been writing to his grandfather in France, Monsieur Delacour, and they had been talking about a trip to Japan for the summer.

Dominique, who was closer in age to James, spent her time sitting on the sofa with him talking to him about Quidditch. James told her about how he had snuck into his mother's study and took a peak at some of the papers she had been working on as sports editor for the daily prophet. He was talking to her about the scandal he had read about and how, while there wasn't a lot of detail in the papers he had read, he was sure his mother was onto something big.

Victoire watched her younger cousins looking bored. Albus knew she'd prefer it if Teddy Lupin were here with them but he was working at The Leaky Cauldron this afternoon and could not make it in before she and he family went to France.

They all spent a few hours with each other before his uncle left with the family and Al's mom began preparing dinner. James was in a very good mood through dinner and even volunteered to help with breakfast the next morning. Albus went to bed that night feeling full and relaxed. His room, which he had hung a Slytherin banner on the wall, was illuminated by a magical candle his uncle George had given him a year ago that lit up whenever the lights were turned out.

Albus stared at the candle as he drifted into sleep.

When he woke the next morning, Christmas eve, he could smell baking from the kitchen. It was tradition to have Grandmother Weasley come to their house and help his mother cook but, as tradition seemed to go, his father always seemed more interested in cooking than his mother.

Albus dressed quickly and ran a comb through his hair before going down the stairs to the kitchen. As he expected, his entire family was in there laughing happily together including his grandmother who smiled when she saw him.

"Albus," She gave him a hug and then pulled back.

"Breakfast is on the table," His mother said kissing the top of his head as he sat down at the table next to his sister.

The three adults were busy working on making cakes, muffins, pies, and biscuits. Albus watched as his father scooped up some of the flour in his hands and blew it at his mother. Both of them broke out laughing and Grandmother Weasley lightly tapped Harry's arm.

"The two of you act just like children," She scolded but she seemed to be in a really good mood and laughed with the two of them. "Help me get these pies into the oven."

Albus smiled as he started to eat the plate of eggs his brother had made for him. James was cutting, by hand, a few ingredients for the stew they would be having for dinner tonight. He seemed very focused and didn't seem to notice his brother or anyone else was in the room. Lily, on the other hand, was getting a kick out of watching her parents and grandmother. She was even encouraging it.

The Potter family spent the entire day baking, laughing, and enjoying each other's company. To Albus, it felt like the most normal day ever and he was comfortable. In the evening, they enjoyed a nice meal together and ate some pumpkin pasties afterward. Albus felt wonderful when he returned to his room for bed.

As he changed out of his clothes into pyjamas, he looked over at his night stand and saw an envelope laying there addressed to him in a neat scroll he recognized yet hadn't seen in several weeks. He smiled to himself and picked up the envelope. It was heavier than he expected and he slowly opened it. An amulet fell out with two pieces of parchment onto his bed.

Slowly, he picked up one of the pieces which turned out to be a letter.

 _Albus,_

 _It's been a few weeks since I wrote to you last and I promised that, around Christmas, I would send you another letter. Well here it is: Things have become very strained at home while I've been away at school. My father has gone missing and my mother is very ill with something that healers can't seem to fix. I had to complete my semester at home with a tutor from Ilvermorny. It's why I couldn't write to you but I wanted to, I wanted to tell you what was going on but I had to take care of my mother._

 _I will be going back to Ilvermorny after Christmas to continue my fourth year of school. I've become good friends with my tutor but she's got another job at a school in Brazil teaching Herbology. I hear a lot of good Herbologists come out of the Brazilian Wizard school and I'm glad she has the opportunity to teach it there. She and I will be keeping in touch and I might be going to South America in the summer to study there. They have this amazing exchange program I was looking into._

 _Anyway, you may be wondering what the amulet and other piece of parchment in this envelope are. The amulet is my Christmas gift to you. I found it in a shop on a trip to Sacramento and thought of you. I put a charm on it to help with stress because I know that school and friends can be stressful. And if you ever need to get your stresses out, you can always write to me about them. I will try my best to offer advice to you. The other paper is an instructions list on how to care for it if it gets dirty and a few other things._

 _I do hope that it helps you._

 _Sincerely,_

 _Cantor White_

Albus smiled. It was a wonderful thought and he wished he had a present to send to Cantor in return. Even if he did, he it would never reach Cantor by Christmas. His owl would have to fly thousands of miles to get to Cantor.

Albus changed focus to the other piece of parchment laying on his bed. He picked it up and looked over the list of instructions:

 _must be washed, once a week, in a special potions, the recipe is listed below._

 _should not come in contact with unicorn blood or else the charm on it will wear off_

 _charm is waterproof so you should be fine showering with it on or even swimming_

 _charm is sensitive to certain potions and hasn't been tested with all of them. It may cause a reaction with your skin. I have also written a recipe to reverse that if it happens._

 _5..._

The rest of the list of instructions, which went up to 8, were either smudged or in a different language. Albus couldn't read them but there were two recipes listed below the instructions to potions that he could understand perfectly and he put the parchment aside. Now, he had the amulet laying there against his pillow. Slowly, he picked it up in his hands and looked it over.

It was an oval with a gem within the middle and some odd symbols around it engraved in the iron. He ran his fingers over it and the gem glimmered. It made him feel warm inside as he pulled it around his neck. He felt stress free just having it around his neck. Slowly, he laid back on his bed and closed his eyes falling asleep.


	8. An Owl

Chapter Eight

Unfortunately, Holidays end and Albus, Rose, and Socrpius were all back in classes. Scorpius returned to the Slytherin common room late after studying with Rose in the library. She had agreed to help him improve in transfigurations. So far, he wasn't improving much but he had managed to turn a match into a needle. His problem was changing it back which seemed to be a challenge with everything he managed to transform.

Rose made it all look so easy. He only wished that he could do that. His talent was for potions and he did well in Herbology. Rose was phenomenal when it came to Herbology but alright in potions. She wasn't coming to him asking for help on how to complete the Wideye Potion or questioning how much flobberworm mucus was in the Herbicide Potion. But he had to go to her to ask how to completely turn a match into a needle.

He sat down feeling hopeless by the Slytherin fire. There seemed to be more students bustling around this evening then there had been before break. Scorpius almost didn't notice when Kris arrived and sat beside him on the sofa.

"Why so glum, chum?" Kris asked.

He seemed to be in good spirits despite having returned from a rough holiday at home with his family. Scorpius assumed he was just having a good time being back where he had friends to talk with.

"Why am I so bad at transfigurations?" Scorpius asked and Kris shook his head.

"You're not bad," Kris said pulling out his bag. "You just need a little help. That's nothing to be ashamed of. I'm absolutely rotten at potions. Albus has to help me most of the time. But Astrology; now that's something I'm really good at."

He pulled out a book on astrology and opened it. Scorpius looked it over and noticed it was not the book for class.

"Are you doing a project?" Scorpius asked him.

Kris smiled excitedly. "No. Professor Sinistra told me about this book so I told my dad about this and he got it for me for Christmas."

Scorpius slowly got up. "I'll leave you to your reading then."

He walked away just as Kris started to say that he didn't have to leave and he went into his dorm room where Albus, Wayne, and Ernie were all hanging out. Ernie was asleep in his bed while Wayne sat on his trying to catch up on his homework assignments. Albus lay on his bed looking up at the ceiling.

Albus, since he had got back, seemed to be more relaxed than Scorpius remembered. He wasn't stressed out about his homework like everyone else seemed to be and he wasn't being cold to Scorpius in any way.

"Hey Al," Scorpius said sitting on his own bed. "How are you?"

Albus seemed to snap out of a trance and looked at Scorpius. "Oh, Scorp. I'm alright. You?"

"Oh, I could be better," Scorpius said leaning back. "I'm having trouble with transfiguration."

Albus gave a slight nod of his head. "I heard from Rose she's helping you with that."

Scorpius nodded slowly. "Yeah but I'm not getting much better."

"As my brother says, practice and you'll do fine."

"Can you guys shut up?!" Wayne called from his bed. "I'm trying to study."

...

Albus woke up the Friday after they returned from break and got out of bed quickly dressing. It was early, about six o'clock and most of his classmates were still asleep. All of the other boys in his dorm were still in bed; Wayne was snoring, Liam was twitching in his sleep, and Kris was curled up with his pillows.

Slowly, he put his robes on and his shoes making sure he was as quiet as he could be so as not to wake the others. He started out of the boy's dorm and walked through the common room with his bag over his shoulder. Only one person was awake, a fifth year boy Albus had once talked to named Gregory Telfer. He sat writing busy and looked up when he noticed he was no longer in the room.

"Ah, Slytherin Potter," Greg said putting his quill down. "Off to send another letter?"

"I'm actually expecting on," Albus said in return.

Albus had written back to Cantor the day after Christmas telling him about how Christmas day at his uncle's house was a bit awkward. His uncle kept making jokes about Slytherins and how they're evil despite getting stern warnings from his wife to mind what he's saying. At one point, he started talking about the Malfoy family and that made things really uncomfortable for Albus. He even noticed other people in the room getting uncomfortable.

They hadn't stayed long and neither had most of the rest of the family. The first to leave had been Uncle Charlie who claimed that he had to go back to Romania. Percy took off with his wife and daughters saying that Audrey's parents wanted to see the grandchildren for Christmas for just a little bit. The Potters left after sharing a few of the sweets. Albus wasn't sure how long Uncle George and his children had stayed but they were there after the Potters had left.

Both Harry and Ginny had apologized to their son for Ron Weasley's words but Albus couldn't feel comfort in that apology. He had already felt alienated from the rest of his family but it wasn't until Christmas that knew how his family felt. No one had defended him and he told Cantor all about this.

He also wrote to thank him for the amulet. It was helping with his stress levels so far despite what had happened on Christmas. He promised to send a gift over to Cantor as soon as he could. James often brought sweets back from Hogsmead for his brother and he thought about sending some of those.

Albus entered the corridor and walked up the stairs out of the dungeons. Everything was quiet at the moment as he stepped, the only sound being the sound of his own shoes hitting the ground as he walked. The rest of the school was only just waking up meaning the owlry would be empty.

Many times had Albus gone to the owlry early to check if there was mail for him. He didn't like being around anyone when he read his letters especially letters from Cantor. To him, they were all personal especially since he had started to trust Cantor really well with his secrets. Which is why he preferred to read his letters when no one else could peak over his shoulder or snatch it out of his hands.

The walk to the owlry was a bit chilly with the cold January weather. As he climbed the stairs up, he nearly slipped on a patch of ice but was lucky enough to catch his balance. He finally reached the top of the stairs and entered into the owlry. His owl, Zed, lay perched waiting for him and, when he held out his arm, flew to him and landed.

Attached to his leg, was the letter he was waiting for from Cantor. Quickly, he took the letter and gave Zed a treat before the owl took off to rest. On the front of the letter was his name neatly written by Cantor.

 _Albus,_

 _I'm sorry to hear that you had troubles Christmas day with your family but I'm glad that you enjoyed the gift I sent to you. I feel honored that it was the best gift you claimed to have got and I'm glad that it can work for you. I was a little nervous about the spell. I haven't tested it out before except on myself. Hopefully it will come in some use for you during the rest of the school year and much after._

 _I apologize for not replying immediately after. I just moved back in at Ilvermorny and have been settling down and into the habit of attending classes but, to be honest, it's as if I hadn't left this place. I got into an argument on my first day back, however, with a student from Wampus (that's the house that represents the body and favors the warriors). He doesn't like me very much and was not happy to see me back at school._

 _I was thinking that, after my trip to Brazil, maybe you could come to America this summer. I could show you around the wizard village I live in and maybe get us a tour of Ilvermorny so you could see how amazing it is there. Please let me know if that's something you'd be interested in._

 _Cantor_

"Mr. Potter," He had hardly finished the letter when he heard a voice causing him to jump shocked and turn around.

Professor Ramirez, dressed in a dark blue robe, stood behind him with a dark bird sitting upon his shoulder. He gave his bird some sort of green bird treat and it nibbled his finger affectionately before it flew off into the rafters.

"Professor," Albus said a little defensively. "It's not against the rules to receive a letter from home and curfew ends at six so I'm not out of bed when I shouldn't be."

Professor Ramirez, who had a dark look in his eye, glanced over Albus and looked toward the letter that was in his hand suspiciously. Albus, instinctively, held the letter firm against his chest wondering if Ramirez could see through the piece of paper.

"Do you expect I'll be giving you detention each time I see you, Mr. Potter?"

Albus almost answered that he did but he held his tongue. Professor Ramirez had been harsh on him nights he had to spend detention in his office. He wasn't quite sure why he got detention in the first place but he wasn't about to get another detention that would keep him awake when he could be sleeping. So he kept his instinctive response held down in his mouth. Instead he said:

"Sir, with all due respect, you don't seem to like me very much."

That wasn't the best thing he could have said but it wasn't the worst. On the corner of his professor's lips, an odd smile formed.

"How could I not like you, Mr. Potter?" He asked. "You were eavesdropping on my conversation and being nosy."

"I wasn't eavesdropping," Albus shot quickly and then wished he had kept his mouth shut.

Ramirez's eyes flickered darkly and he sneered slightly. "I'd watch you're tone if I were you. You could get yourself into a lot of trouble."

He turned away and walked out of the owlry leaving Albus there alone. The young Potter had a feeling that Ramirez knew something that he didn't and, while he was curious, it made him nervous. After all, Ramirez was the divinations professor meaning he had to have some sort of gift for seeing the future. His tone had sounded threatening and Albus hoped that nothing bad would happen to him.

He sat down against the wall of the owlry and pulled a piece of parchment and a quill from his bag. Taking out his ink and laying the parchment flat against a book, Albus began to pen his letter to Cantor.

 _Cantor,_

 _I would love to visit you in America this summer but I have to ask my parents first. My mother is the only one who knows I have a QuillPal but would not be very pleased with the idea of me going to another country on my own at my age. I'll ask anyway but I have a feeling I know the answer to the question._

 _I'm glad that I'm back at school, to be honest. I like the time I can spend on my own in the library or in the owlry where no one will bother me._

 _I keep having run-ins with one of the professors here at Hogwarts. Apparently, he used to work at Ilvermorny and I was wondering if you could tell me anything about him. His name is Professor Ramirez and he's been giving me a hard time. He gave me detention once but refused to explain only saying that I was eavesdropping on him. When I was in his detention, he gave me more detention. He acts very peculiar and seems suspicious; is there anything that you can tell me about him?_

 _Please write back soon,_

 _Albus_

He called out for Zed who instantly swooped down to him and landed on his arm. Easily taking out an envelope from his bag, he managed to attach the letter to Zed's leg and pet his head quickly with his fingers. Zed rubbed against him affectionately before taking off to the skies to deliver the letter for Albus.

The young Potter could only wait now.


	9. Fighting and Isolation

Chapter Nine

Rose, Kris, and Scorpius sat together in an empty classroom working on a potions essay on forgetfulness potions together. Kris struggled to write his the most and kept asking questions about it which seemed to annoy Rose but Scorpius kept level headed. He and Rose took turns helping Kris.

"So," Kris asked his fiftieth question. "How long are we supposed to heat the Lethe River Water again?"

"I swear you've drank a forgetfulness potion," Rose crossed her arms over her chest and a little bit of ink spilled onto her robes. "You asked this question fifteen minutes ago."

"I forgot," Kris said lazily writing something down. "Now, what's the answer?"

Rose became tense and clenched her fist. "You know, if you had written it down in your notes in the first place, you wouldn't need to ask us."

Kris made a face at her and she returned it. Scorpius sighed and shook his head. The two of them were constantly griping at each other lately and Scorpius couldn't understand why that was. One minute, they were friends and then, almost by magic, they seemed to hate each other.

"20 seconds," Scorpius said answering Kris's question. "After you as the Valerian springs, you stir clockwise thrice and then wave your want over the potion and leave it to brew for about 50 minutes."

Kris jotted this down. "Thanks. Now, this is a 2 part recipe, right?"

"I've said this three times!" Rose exclaimed and both Kris and Scorpius flinched.

"I forgot," Kris said defensively sitting up.

Rose and Kris locked eyes in a tense glare and Scorpius got to his feet stepping between the two of them. They both glared up at him and he crossed his own arms.

"What's wrong with you guys?" He asked looking specifically at Rose who seemed to be the most angry.

"She keeps snapping at me!" Kris said.

"He keeps asking the same questions!" Rose shot back.

Scorpius grabbed his parchment. "Unless you two can talk about your issues without fighting, I'm not going to work with you."

Rose took a deep breath and put her quill down.

"Kris and I got into a fight a few days ago," She explained and Kris sighed softly. "It was about Albus."

"Rose thinks Albus is avoiding us all," Kris leaned back in his seat. "I told her that it was her fault if she was. He told me what happened on Christmas eve."

Scorpius questioned what happened and he didn't like the answer. Apparently, the Potter/Weasley family had been reminiscing about their school days during Christmas and they got on the topic of Slytherin vs Gryffindor, the longtime rivalry. It didn't take long for someone to say that all evil wizards came from Slytherin and that one person that said it happened to be Rose's father.

Albus, being the only Slytherin in the room, had felt very uncomfortable with the words his uncle was saying. He had asked him if that's what he thought about himself and Ron Weasley had replied that he didn't think that Albus, himself, was evil but he did believe he was surrounding himself with Death Eater grandchildren that still believed in blood purity.

He had brought up the Malfoy family specifically and claimed that Lucius Malfoy was likely poisoning his grandson to believe in his old ways.

"I hardly talk to my grandfather," Scorpius took a deep breath.

"Albus stuck up for you," Kris said. "But nobody stuck up for him."

He aimed that last part at Rose who glared at him. "What was I supposed to say?"

"Everyone in your family can accept that you're in Ravenclaw!" Kris snapped sitting straight again. "But your father and his brothers can hardly accept a Slytherin. Everyone was shocked to hear that Potter's son was a Slytherin, it even made the Daily Prophet. Did you even try and comfort Albus when he was struggling to come to terms with the fact that not everyone in his family was going to be happy that he didn't live up to the Gryffindor expectations?"

"It's not my fault people don't accept him!" Rose shouted and picked up her belongings.

"You're walking away from this again?!" Kris shouted after her as she stormed out of the room.

Rose didn't turn back to them or come back into the room. She didn't shout back in response to Kris. She kept walking and they listened until her footsteps disappeared out in the corridor.

Scorpius took a few deep breaths and looked at Kris who was shaking in anger.

"Do you really think Rose doesn't like Slytherins?" Scorpius asked.

"No," Kris said shaking his head. "But I do believe that she has trouble accepting Albus in Slytherin. Her father has told her all her life that evil people came from Slytherin and that even the Malfoy family are pureblood believers that hate muggleborns like her mother. Your father, after all, was a Death Eater like your grandfather had been."

Rose had never seemed to have a problem with Scorpius and Kris being Slytherins and two of her best friends outside of her house. It had seemed that she was completely open-minded to any and all houses. She had, after all, also defied family tradition when she was sorted into Ravenclaw rather than Gryffindor.

She had never, openly, expressed any negative opinions about her cousin's sorting. The only person Scorpius had witnessed doing so was Albus's older brother, James Potter.

"And you think that Albus is avoiding us because of her?" Scorpius asked.

"I accused her of such," Kris confirmed. "Albus never seems to be around us when Rose is since we came back from Christmas Holiday. He's been moody and keeps to himself and I think it's Rose's fault."

Scorpius shook his head. "I don't think it's Rose's fault. I think Albus is just having a hard time and we should probably go check in on him to make sure things are alright."

The two of them started to gather their school belongings as they started to the door.

"Did you ask all those questions on purpose?" Scorpius asked. "Just to annoy Rose?"

"Of course," Kris replied. "I can be petty sometimes."

As the neared the door, they heard a crash of some sorts and the sound of someone running away. They stepped out into the corridor and looked around. Someone was fleeing the scene with their hood up. Scorpius could make out the Ravenclaw colors but he couldn't tell who the person was. It seemed obvious to him that this person had been listening in on their conversation.

...

Rose had made it back to the Ravenclaw common room and was sitting at the chess table fiddling with the chess pieces trying to take her mind off of the row she had just had with Kris. Everything he said made her angry.

Rose cared deeply about her cousin and didn't care what house he was in. Yes, Slytherin still had the negative reputation for producing evil wizards but there hadn't been a single dark wizard in at least nineteen years. Her uncle Harry had defeated Voldemort years ago and saved the wizarding world. Since then, the death eaters no longer reigned and everyone was safe.

She understood that and she trusted Kris, Scorpius, and Albus knowing that none of them were the type to become dark wizards trying to take over the wizarding world. What she couldn't help was the fact that her father still believed in the Slytherin prejudice he had held for years. And she wasn't about to take back to her father and try to convince him he was wrong. He wouldn't understand where she was coming from.

Some sat across from her at the table and she slowly looked up to see Orion setting up his pieces.

"You're looking for a challenger, right?" He questioned as he placed his rooks down.

"I just need something to take my mind off of something that happened," Rose replied and set her pieces.

Orion shook his head at her. "While needing a distraction, it's not always good to keep things down. It just makes a mess when something comes along to strike the match, if you know what I mean."

Rose, as white, made the first move.

"You're trying to say that I should talk about my problems," Rose said. "If I don't, I'll end up taking my anger out on the wrong person."

"Feel free to take it out on me right now," Orion said invitingly. "Pawn to h6."

Orion's pawn slid into position mirroring Rose's move of a white pawn to h3. The two played and Orion eventually got Rose to explain that she had been fighting with her two friends about her cousin's distant behavior. He listened carefully to her and eventually had her in check but he had made a fatal move.

Rose checkmated the Ravenclaw chess champion and Orion bowed his head in defeat.

"You're amazing," He said getting to his feet. "I hope things work out with your friends and cousin. It sounds very stressful. If you need someone, I'll always be around to play chess with."

He smiled encouragingly at her and went off to the boys dorm leaving Rose staring at the chess table. She actually found herself feeling better than she had before. She felt as though she had taken an invigoration draught. She pulled out her essay and started to finish it.

...

Albus sat on his bed with the response from Cantor in his hand. It had been two weeks since he had heard from Cantor after writing his letter and his response was very short:

 _Stay away from Angel Ramirez. He's trouble._

He hadn't even signed it or given any more information on why Professor Ramirez was trouble. It gave a sinking feeling in Albus's gut and he wasn't sure what to do. He couldn't tell anyone about it because he had no proof that Professor Ramirez was any sort of trouble. He only had the word of his Quillpal who lived thousands of miles away for him.

He heard someone coming and quickly stuffed the letter under his pillow. When he looked up, saw Scorpius and Kris enter talking about something but they stopped when they saw Albus. He frowned at the two of them.

"Something wrong?" He asked due to their lack of speech.

"No," Kris said shaking his head but Albus could tell by the tone of his voice that he was lying. "Scorpius and I just came to see how you were doing. We're going to go for a walk around the grounds before curfew if you want to join us."

Albus looked at the two of them and looked at his pillow.

"Let me get my shoes on," Albus said softly. "I'll meet you guys out in the common room."

The two of them nodded and started out of the dorm room. Albus grabbed the letter from under his pillow and stuffed it into his trunk at the end of his bed before pulling his shoes onto his feet. Quickly, he went after Scorpius and Kris and found them talking again. As soon as they noticed him, they became quiet.

Albus felt like he was missing something.

"Are you ready to go?" Kris asked linking his arm with Albus and pulling him along before he could answer.

They walked quietly through the corridors as they noticed people coming and going from dinner. Albus caught his brother in the great hall laughing with Louis as they threw tiny pieces of corn at Lucy and Molly. He sighed softly and looked away.

"You're sighing," Scorpius remarked. "Are you okay?"

Albus nodded and tried to pretend that everything was alright even when nothing was. The three of them walked and talked and, as they did, Albus no longer felt like he was pretending to be happy for the others. Eventually the three of them returned to the common room together in good spirits as they got ready for bed.

Albus lay awake on his bed as he heard the others starting to snore. All of his thoughts he had been having through the day came rushing to him. Scorpius and Kris were trying to be nice to him but they were obviously keeping something so that he wouldn't know. He felt isolated from his friend and from his own family as of late. The only person he felt he could rely on was Cantor.

He reached the amulet around his neck and held it in the palm of his hand. Now he had some more time to think about what Cantor meant in his letter. Professor Ramirez was trouble, according to Cantor and it seemed like this was more than just the typical "he's not a very good professor" kind of trouble. No, it was something more than that and Albus couldn't figure out what it was.

He wanted to write back to Cantor asking for more information and he thought about what he'd write. He'd ask Cantor what he meant by Ramirez is trouble. He's ask if that meant people were in danger. Then he'd tell Cantor how isolated he felt at Hogwarts right now. If anyone would understand, Cantor would.

He eventually fell into a deep sleep still clutching the amulet which, unknown to himself, was glowing a relaxing blue color.


	10. Snooping

Chapter Ten:

Despite the attempts Albus had made to hide the letter, Kris, as nosy as he was, eventually found it but he didn't confront Albus about it. He wasn't quite sure what to make of it. Someone, who he didn't know, was telling his friend not to trust a professor and claiming he was trouble. Unfortunately, no matter how much Kris was able to snoop, he couldn't find any more information about this letter's claim or the person who wrote it. So, he did what he thought was right and went to the person he believed might know the answers: Rose.

Rose and Kris had eventually made up and Kris told Rose about the person that had been eavesdropping on their conversation. She wondered who it could possibly be but couldn't think of anyone that matched the description that Scorpius and Kris had. Not that there was much of a description to give. They had seen the back of a person's cloak as they ran away. They could only guess how tall they were but couldn't even begin to put a face to the back of a hood.

Kris and Rose sat at the Ravenclaw table discussing the letter that was found. Kris didn't want Albus to get suspicious so he left the letter where he found it. But he remembered exactly what it said and told Rose.

"I don't know if he's ever told you about corresponding with someone outside of Hogwarts," Kris said. "But if he has, I'd like to know. I'd like to know who thinks Professor Ramirez is bad and why they think that."

Rose frowned and tried to think. Kris watched her waiting for some sort of response. It took her a while to answer.  
"He's never mentioned anyone he writes to to me," She replied. "I thought that you guys were the ones he talked to the most."

Kris explained to her that he had seen him going out almost every morning to the owlry to check if he got mail or to send a letter. He and Scorpius had both assumed he was writing home all the time. But now, he wasn't so sure of that. In fact, he doubted that any of the letters Albus sent and received were even from his parents.

Rose looked over Kris's shoulder toward the Gryffindor table where Albus was sitting talking to his brother.

"Maybe James knows," Rose suggested but Kris shook his head.

"Albus has told me tons of times that he doesn't trust James. A few weeks ago, Albus trusted me completely. Something has changed in your cousin."

Rose crossed her arms over her chest thinking. "It could be school. Maybe classes are stressing him out."

Again, Kris had to disagree with her. Albus was doing wonderfully in his class especially compared to him. He seemed relaxed, handed in all of his essays and homework on time, and never complained. Something else had to be the reason he's changed and Kris knew it had something to do with the in and out letters.

"I'd write to aunt Ginny to find out," Rose claimed. "But she'd get suspicious and probably write to Albus askeing what this is all about."

"So what are our options?" Kris asked.

They both sat there thinking and then Rose blurted out her idea.

"Mail interception," She exclaimed.

Kris's mouth opened but he couldn't figure out words to give. Eventually, they came to him.

"That's illegal and wrong," He said shaking his head. "I'm surprised you of all people suggested that to me of all people."

Rose raised her brow. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Rose," Kris began to explain. "You typically follow the rules around here. You've never gotten a single detention not even for speaking in class when you shouldn't because you don't. Then you suggest something illegal to the adopted son, but still son, of Kingsley Shaklebolt who I don't have to remind you is the Minister for Magic."

Rose rolled her eyes. "So you're not going to do this?"

"I never said that," Kris said. "I just expressed my shock. Now, it's going to be hard to intercept Al's mail. He gets up very early and leaves just as curfew ends so he won't get in trouble for being out of bed."

Rose nodded as she listened to Kris and he could tell she was coming up with some sort of plan. It took her a few moments but her face lit up when an idea struck her and Kris was ready to take notes.

"Okay," she said softly making sure that only Kris could hear her. "I will make sure I'm up and ready by the time curfew ends every day this week but you will have to do the same, possibly getting up earlier. You will distract Albus in the common room every morning with one of your question tirades or whatever."

Kris rolled his eyes but agreed. He wasn't sure how long this was going to take but he was determined to find out what was going on with Albus.

The next morning, he woke up at about five and dressed quietly. He yawned as he sat down on a sofa in the Slytherin common room and waited for Albus to wake up. To keep from falling asleep, he brought with him his Astrology book and sat reading it.

When Albus came out of the dorm and into the common room, Kris put his book down and stopped him.

"Kris?" Albus questioned. "I didn't even notice you weren't in bed."

Kris smiled through his tired eyes and pulled Albus to the sofa. "I woke up with some questions about a few astrology things. I even came up with my own theory. Do you want to hear?"

Kris watched as Al's eyes darted to the door and he knew that Albus wanted to leave. However, Albus released a sigh and nodded slowly to his friend.

"Yeah," He muttered. "Yeah, sure."

Kris grinned. "It won't take too long, I promise."

And he then proceeded to tell Albus all about a fake theory he had made up on the spot stopping to ask questions now and then to see if Albus was following. He could see Albus growing bored after ten minutes but he had to keep going so that if there was mail for him, Rose would get it before her cousin did. To help his story, he kept bringing his book out to make it seem like it provided the evidence for this ridiculous theory. He hated lying but he was hoping that Albus was buying into it or at least thought Kris was just spewing some crazy ideas.

He was watching all of Albus's body movements and noticed when he became bored, when he looked skeptical, and when he just seemed to get antsy which was about forty minutes into the fictional theory. Kris continued to talk for about another 15 minutes.

"So, that's my theory," He finished and smiled. "What do you think?"

Albus scratched his head as if he were trying to find something to say.

"You think too much," He finally said and got to his feet.

Albus started to the door and Kris jumped up to try and stop him again as he checked his watch.

"Wait," He called after. "Aren't you going to ask me any questions about it? I have so many more things to say!"

Albus looked back at Kris and promised he'd be back in a little while. He said he'd listen to it when he returned if there was time enough between classes. Kris sighed softly and hoped that Rose had had enough time to get to the owlry, intercept the Albus's owl, and been able to return without being caught.

Kris waited fifteen minutes before leaving the common room. He went straight for the great hall and looked around at the Ravenclaw table. When he spotted Rose sitting by herself, he went over to her and sat across.

"Did you get anything?" He asked as she looked up at him.

"His owl wasn't there," Rose responded. "It doesn't seem he has any mail."

For five days, this went on. Kris made sure to be up early to distract Albus. He found that Albus was more focused if he kept asking questions about potions and boy was he ever. Albus could talk about a potion nonstop and Kris found that dedication impressive. It was also easy to get Albus to continue talking as long as he asked the right questions.

"If you added too much to a potion, what might happen?"

"Well," Albus began. "It depends on the potion and how much of the other ingredients you used."

He would go off on all the different effects of adding too many beetles to this or too much powder to that. His enthusiasm was at its peak and Kris absolutely loved it.

Unfortunately, it wasn't until the sixth day that they finally received Albus's mail.

...

Rose woke early and watched her watch as she dressed. She had to wait fifteen minutes before she could leave the common room when six o'clock came and she made short time getting out of the common room and down the main steps. Nobody stopped her to ask what she was doing up so early on a Sunday and she made sure of that, walking with determination.

Her heart pounded in her chest as it did every morning with anticipation. She was hoping beyond anything else that today would be the day that she got lucky, that Albus actually got mail. Now, she did feel guilty that she was breaking rules and snooping through the privet business of her cousin but Kris made her feel concerned that something bad was happening to him.

She reached the owlry within minutes and called out to Al's owl, Zed. The owl came flying down to her with a letter attached to it's leg. This is what she had been hoping for. As he landed on the window sill, he flinched a little as he recognized her.

To distract Zed, Rose pet his head affectionately the way that Albus always did and he hooted in approval as she untied the letter. She was just about to open it when she heard a voice behind her. She flinched so violently that Zed hooted in fear and took off.

"What are you doing?"

She recognized the voice and slowly turned to face Orion stuffing the letter in her robe. He looked at her with suspicious and accusing eyes and she felt a wave of guilt wash over her realizing what she was doing. But she wasn't about to come clean so easily.

"I was just getting my mail," Rose replied trying to sound calm and casual.

Orion didn't seem to believe it. "Couldn't you wait for breakfast when the mail comes?"

Rose shook her head. "I just am expecting something important from home."

"I've seen your owl from home, Rose. That wasn't it. That's your cousin, Albus's owl."

Rose wasn't quite sure how he knew that but she couldn't dwell on the thought. She had to find an excuse to get out of this and quickly. Albus would be coming up soon and, if he saw her with his letter, he'd be furious.

"Well aren't you observant," Rose flashed a smile and started out past Orion.

She wasn't expecting him to react so quick and step in front of her. She crashed right into him and stumbled backward.

"You're up to something, Rose Weasley," He said. "Reading people's mail is illegal."

Rose took a deep breath. She could hear footsteps coming up the steps of the owlry.

"Orion, please," She begged. "I will explain to you later but you have to let me get past."

Orion frowned and seemed to contemplate letting her pass. Slowly, he stepped aside and she dashed down the steps to the owlry with Orion watching her. She almost crashed right into Albus as she went but she only stopped long enough to blush, apologize, and run off again.

She had just made it into the Great Hall when she saw Kris come in from the dungeons. The two went toward each other and she pulled the letter out.

"We've got something," She said.

"Oh great," Kris replied and they started off up the stairs to the library. "I thought Albus was sure to catch you. He got really irritated with me this morning and he sounded really suspicious."

"One of my fellow Ravenclaw's blocked my way," Rose said. "I nearly didn't get out of there on time."

"Is it that chess kid you were talking about?" Kris asked as they took a seat at one of the tables in the library.

Rose nodded and slowly opened the letter. The first thing she noticed was that it wasn't addressed to anyone, not even Albus.

"It's not the same handwriting," Kris said. "It's messier and the letters are thinner."

Slowly, Rose began to read:

 _I've intercepted this owl on its way to Hogwarts and some kid seems to be suspicious of you and your actions at that school. Hopefully, this owl will reach you before it reaches the kid. MACUSA is become wary of your actions and thoughts and they are becoming wary of the growing threat to their society._

 _You have to convince them that this is not what they think. We haven't had a scare like this since Gallert Gwrindelwald was in The U.S._

It wasn't signed either and Rose frowned passing it over to Kris.

"MACUSA?" He seemed shocked. "As in the Magical Congress of the United States of America? This letter came from the United States?"

"It would seem so," Rose said trying to wrap her mind around this. "Whoever Albus has been talking to must live there."

"But this was an intercepted owl," Kris said. "How do we know for sure?"

"We can't be sure," Rose said sighing. "But whoever wrote this letter knows information regarding the United States Magical Government. Maybe we could try and figure out who this letter was meant for."

Kris looked over the letter another time. "Well, my father is the Minister for Magic here."

"I doubt it was meant for him," Rose said taking the letter. "It was meant for someone at this school. They knew that Zed would be returning here."

"Well the only person you and I know ties to the United States is Professor Ramirez," Kris said and then he frowned realizing something. "The last message Albus got was not to trust Ramirez. What if this message really was to him?"

"Then it was warning him that people are on to whatever he has planned," Rose said taking a deep breath.

They had to do something but there wasn't much they could do. Kris suggested they go to his father and Rose rebut saying they had no evidence that Professor Ramirez was doing anything wrong. That also meant they could not get Professor Rainer involved. They couldn't tell Albus. It was up to them to figure out what was going on.


	11. A Letter About Ramirez

Chapter Eleven

Albus returned to the common room on evening in the beginning of February looking quite disappointed He hadn't received a letter from Cantor for weeks now and he was feeling more and more isolated than he had ever felt before. Whenever he wanted to talk to Rose or Kris, the two of them had their heads together chatting and always got quiet when he entered the room. James never seemed to make time for him. The only person that ever was around was Scorpius.

Scorpius was good to talk to when he wanted to be. He and Albus hadn't started out close but they grew to be on good terms. When Kris was too busy talking with Rose, the two of them sat in the common room talking about classes and silly things they had seen around Hogwarts. The two of them were becoming closer and Scorpius was starting to take over the role of Al's best friend.

When Scorpius saw Albus enter the common room that evening, he pulled his bag off of the couch and patted the seat next to him signifying he wanted Albus to join him. Albus sat down next to Scorpius and explained that he had been expecting a letter but it hadn't come. Instead of asking him what the letter was about, Scorpius tried to assure Albus that it would come if he just kept waiting for it.

This was something Albus was starting to enjoy about Scorpius. Although he often was awkward, Scorpius wasn't annoying and constantly asking questions like Kris tended to do. He listened and let Albus tell him things on his own. If the subject was depressing, Scorpius would find a way to elevate the mood by either cracking a joke or changing the topic. Today, Scorpius decided to talk about the end of the school year approaching and his plans for the summer.

"My father wants to take me to a place in Ireland for the first two weeks of summer," Scorpius explained. "But other than that, I'm free if you want to come for a visit."

Albus almost told Scorpius about his invitation to America from Cantor but he stopped himself. Scorpius would judge him for telling all his feelings to a stranger half way across the world. Besides, he wasn't even sure that he would get the chance to go overseas and visit Cantor. He hadn't asked him parents and he hadn't heard from Cantor in a while.

"I currently don't have any finalized plans," Albus said. "Louis gets to spend his summer in France with his grandfather while I am probably spending a lot of time at home."

Scorpius did he best to try and comfort Albus about this fact but Albus felt no different so Scorpius decided to start talking about Kris and how he wished Kris was around more.

"Do you think he and Rose are secretly dating?" Scorpius asked looking up at the ceiling.

Albus laughed. "Aren't they a little young to date? Besides, I ran into Rose going to the Owlry. In fact, she was running away. When I got to the top, there was this older Ravenclaw boy up there and he wouldn't tell me what the two of them were up to."

Scorpius looked at Albus as if to ask whether or not he was being serious and Albus nodded. They started to come up with crazy theories as to what Rose and Kris were doing and what Rose was doing with that Ravenclaw. It put both of them in a good mood as they were laughing with each other and when Kris walked in, they tried to hold that laughter down.

"Are you guys okay?" Kris asked and Albus nodded as Scorpius hid his face into the sofa cushion.

"We're fine," He choked out. "Where have you been?"

Kris seemed to tense up a little. "I was with Rose in the library. We were talking about...Herbology."

Albus raised his brow and Scorpius excused himself from the room to the common room.

"Herbolobgy?" Albus asked. "Is that what they're calling it?"

Kris looked confused. "What do you mean?"

"You and Rose spend all this time together," Albus said. "One can't help but wonder what's going on."

Kris looked suddenly very guilty, as if he were hiding something. He shook his head and said that he couldn't talk about it before going off to their dorm room leaving Albus alone in the common room.

...

Kris and Rose were actually on to something. They had both spent the last few days trailing after Professor Ramirez trying to figure out what he was up to. They hadn't found out much besides that Ramirez was a very secretive person. He kept to himself and always seemed to leave dinner before all of the other professors.

Ramirez spent a lot of time pacing in one of the classrooms which Kris made sure he was also pacing the hallway outside, long strides across so Ramirez wouldn't seem to think he's up to something. He and Rose took shifts following Ramirez. They'd meet in the library to discuss what they learned which wasn't much in the first few days.

But Kris had been the one listening today outside the door remaining as quiet as possible. He could hear someone talking to Ramirez and he was talking back. He was having trouble hearing at first but then he heard Ramirez say:

"I didn't get that letter. Someone must have intercepted it."

"I intercepted some student's owl," The other said. "Maybe he got it first and warned whoever he's been in contact with."

Ramirez said something really quietly to the other man and Kris tried to strain his ears to listen better.

"Whose owl was it that you intercepted?" He eventually heard Ramirez ask.

He heard the other say. "The letter was not addressed to anyone nor was it signed but it mentioned a boy's name. Albus; does that name mean anything to you, Angel?"

There was a silence in the room and Kris held his breath waiting. It took a few minutes for Ramirez to say anything.

"What did that letter say?" Ramirez asked, a tone of irritation in his voice.

"I burned it," Was the response. "But I remember the words 'help' and 'Albus' and it mentioned that you were up to something at Hogwarts but it didn't say anything else that was helpful."

Kris could hear Ramirez curse and he muttered something that Kris could hardly make out as "So, it's happening here too." Kris wasn't sure what it was that Ramirez was talking about but he heard movement within the room and jumped away from the door quickly running toward an empty room narrowly getting caught by Ramirez peeking out to see who was spying on him.

He had barely caught his breath when the sound of a chair moving made him jump and turn. In the chair sat a Ravenclaw student who seemed to have been studying. He looked at Kris with curious eyes as he got to his feet.

"You seem to be running from something," He said. "What fear does the son of the Minister for Magic have?"

"Who are you?" Kris asked crossing his arms. "And what are you doing here?"

The Ravenclaw laughed. "I'm Orion and I'm studying. You're the only one who seems to be here doing anything suspicious. What are you running from?"

Kris looked over Orion. He had heard Rose describe him but Kris hadn't pictured Orion to be so young. He had dark hair and pale skin with eyes as dark as night. Despite being an entire year older than Kris, Orion looked no older than a first year.

"Who says I'm running from something?" Kris tried to play as if he were relaxed.

"You ran in here looking scared," Orion said smirking. "It's okay, though. You don't have to tell me."

He gathered his belonging and threw his bag over his shoulder. He winked at Kris and started out of the room without another word.

Slowly, Kris peeked out into the hallway. All he saw was Orion heading in the direction of the Ravenclaw common room. Ramirez was nowhere to be seen and Kris was able to walk away. He headed straight to the library where Rose was sitting with a text book in front of her.

Kris stepped toward the table and pulled out the seat across.

"Rose," He pulled the book away from her to grab her attention. "I have news."

He told her the entire conversation he had heard outside of the classroom. They tried to make out what it meant but they could only figure that it meant that Albus was in trouble and Ramirez was on to him.

"But what can Ramirez do?" Kris asked. "He's a professor."

"We have to make sure we have someone near Albus at all times," Rose said. "Ramirez could try to pull something and Albus would be vulnerable against a fully grown wizard."

They agreed and Kris went off to find Albus in the Slytherin common room.

...

Albus sat on the stairs up near the entrance to the Gryffindor tower. James had just left upstairs after having a long conversation about the upcoming Slytherin vs Gryffindor Quidditch match. James expected Albus to sit in the Gryffindor section to support him and for him to cheer on the Gryffindor team.

Albus had tried to explain how hard that would be for him since he fully supported Slytherin house but James wouldn't listen and talked about family pride before going off with one of his friends. Albus stayed seated conflicted.

Someone behind him cleared their throat and he slowly turned around. Behind him was Professor Ramirez and he didn't seem to be in a good mood. Albus quickly got to his feet and looked up at his professor.

"Sir," Albus said recalling the letter that Cantor had sent him. "What can I do for you?"

"Potter," Ramirez crosses his arms. "You certainly seem to be all over the castle lately. I know you were spying again."

"Spying?" Albus questioned.

Ramirez eyed Albus before giving him detention. Albus tried to argue but Ramirez wouldn't listen to him. He just told him to meet him in his office tomorrow evening. He didn't tell him what the detention would entail before he walked away leaving Albus on the stairs.

Albus sighed in frustration leaning against the banister. Eventually, he got to his feet and started down the steps. The halls were getting quiet now as he walked on his own. People were going down to dinner to socialize and eat but Albus had no intention of socializing with anyone and he didn't feel hunger. He felt, instead, like a stroll through the grounds.

He heard the sound of chatter and laughter coming from the Great Hall as he passed through the entrance hall and out onto the grounds. Outside, the air was frigid but the snow was almost completely melted. The sun was setting as Albus walked and he had made it half way across the grounds when he heard the noise of fluttering wings above him

At first, he thought it was a bat but when he looked up, he saw an owl above him. It was a bland barn owl like those that were used by the school but it wasn't familiar to him. It seemed to want to land and Albus could see that a letter was tied around its ankle. Slowly, he held out his arms and the owl landed on his wrist. He pecked Albus' shoulder but he wasn't sure what the owl wanted.

Then he noticed the letter and the handwriting on it. It was the handwriting of his Quillpal, Cantor White and it spelled out his name clearly: Albus Potter. Slowly, he reached for the letter and opened it. As soon as he did, the owl took to the sky. Albus watched as it disappeared before he started to read what was written:

 _Albus,_

 _I know it's been a while since I last wrote to you. This have been very complicated here and there is talk that a dark wizard organization is rising in America. Letters are being intercepted even by students and my classmates have been saying that the dark wizards are trying to garner attention from us so we'll join them and start a new revolution. Security is getting tight at Ilvermorny and it's hard for anyone to send letters even to their homes. I don't even know how my mother is doing without me there to take care of her. I hope healers are helping her._

 _Unfortunately, with this new threat and the security here, I have to recant my invitation for your visit this summer. I'm sorry, Albus. I hope that this didn't interfere with anything but I do want to see you. I plan to come to London in July if I can get the right permission from the government. It's hard for students to get access to go abroad with the new security measures they have put in place but I'm hoping I have the chance. It might give you something to look forward to this summer._

 _I figure you want me to explain what's been going on and why I wrote you the last message about Angel Ramirez. Last year, Ramirez got in trouble with the government here in the United States. MACUSA representatives marched into one of our Divinations Classes and pulled Ramirez out. Classes, all classes, were canceled for the rest of the day and Ramirez was replaced with a professor named Cler Fornat, a professor from Beaubatons._

 _It's unclear what Ramirez's involvement is in all of this but many people suspect that he's the one heading this organization. It's quite possible he's come to Hogwarts to influence members of your school to join his cause. I would stay clear of him any chance you get. Some of the students who used to be regulars in his detentions have been arrested for ties to dark magic but they refuse to out the leader of this criminal cult._

 _Stay safe, Albus. If you need to contact me, don't use your owl and don't get caught by Ramirez sending owls. Burn this letter as soon as you can so it doesn't fall into Ramirez's hands._

 _Cantor_

Albus folded up the letter and stuffed it into his cloak. He could hardly contain all the questions that were running through his head but he had no one to talk to about this. He had to get back to the Slytherin common room to write a response to Cantor. He had to know more.

He turned around and saw Kris coming toward him from the castle. He started toward him.

"You okay?" Albus asked trying to sound casual.

"I was just wondering where you were," Kris said with a smile. "I found out this awesome thing with Astrology and I wanted to share it with you. I figured you'd understand."

Albus couldn't argue with Kris and his friend pulled him back into the building. He'd have to write to Cantor another time.


	12. Potions

Chapter Twelve

Detention with Ramirez felt very wrong and awkward. Albus was made to clean all of the tea cups of any tea leaves spotlessly in a small basin. Every cup Albus cleaned was put onto a tray and if Professor Ramirez didn't like it or didn't think it was clean enough, he'd take it off the tray and put it back into the bin of dirty cups. Almost every single cup Albus washed was put back into the bin and Albus had to rewash them.

It took him half an hour to wash them and, all the while, he smelt a sour, vile scent coming from somewhere in the room. Ramirez didn't seem to notice it the way that Albus did. Though, the professor didn't talk much while Albus washed. He just watched Albus with suspicious eyes.

When Albus was finished, Ramirez inspected the last cup meticulously. Albus thought he was going to put it back in the bin but, instead, he took it to the back of the room and poured a strange liquid into it. He walked back to Albus and sat down across from him.

"Mr. Potter," He said and took a sip. "Why do you have the urge to roam about the school?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Albus responded and then quickly added. "Sir."

Ramirez raised his brow at Albus and took another sip of the strange drink. Albus could smell the stench of something rotting. Most likely, the smell was coming from whatever Ramirez was drinking. Albus could hardly stand it.

"Do you know what Divinations is?" Ramirez asked.

Of course, Albus thought. It was something he had known his father wasn't good at. His aunt Hermione hated it and his uncle Ron didn't understand it too well. It was seeing into the future. He explained his understanding of it to Ramirez but didn't voice another thought he had.

Albus kept getting detention from Ramirez for snooping around the castle. It didn't make any sense to him because he wasn't sure where he was going that seemed wrong. Professor Ramirez had a talent for seeing into the future which was why he was the Divinations professor. Shouldn't he be able to see the person who has been spying on him?

"I want you," Ramirez said. "As part of your detention, write me an essay on what you, a first year, knows about Divinations. I don't have the authority to grade you but it is part of you punishment."

"That doesn't sound very fair to me," Albus said and received a glare in return.

"You will specifically research a magical stone known as futurum saxum. Your detention ends now, Mr. Potter. Unless you want another one, deliver this essay to me by the end of next week. Now get out of my office."

Albus didn't argue further. He didn't think Ramirez would listen to him if he tried and he'd probably receive a weeks' worth of detention for it. He gathered his bag and went off toward the stairs. Lucky for him, it wasn't past curfew yet so he didn't have to worry about getting caught out of bed. However, the corridors were quiet and eerie.

Albus walked quickly ignoring the silent chatter of people in pictures talking to each other. He didn't fancy a run in with the mischievous poltergeist, Peeves. He only met one person as he walked, a Hufflepuff prefect who warned him that curfew was approaching but, other than that, things were quiet. He was just reaching the dungeons now when he smelt that insidious odor he had smelt inside of Ramirez' office.

Something wasn't quite right.

Albus wrestled with trying to figure out what it was and making it back to the common room. Slowly, he followed the scent toward the potions classroom. The door was open and he peaked inside slowly and cautiously. Inside the room, Professor McBain seemed busy brewing something and he hummed while he did.

There was a bluish smoke coming from the cauldron he worked over. McBain suddenly looked up noticing Albus.

"Mr. Potter," He spoke softly, his voice much warmer and calmer than Professor Ramirez's.

Professor Elias McBain had sandy hair and wore a set of square glasses. As a professor, he was quite young but Albus knew him to be very knowledgeable. As head of Slytherin House, McBain did have a bias. He had been a 7th year student at Hogwarts ten years ago and had a few years of field work which he had explained in his first class.

Professor McBain motioned for Albus come in.

"Good evening Professor," Albus said politely stepping into the room and moving toward his professor.

"You're out quite late," McBain said. "Shouldn't return to the common room?"

"I just got out of detention, sir," Albus said frowning a little.

"You've been getting a lot of detentions from Professor Ramirez," McBain said softly. "Why is that?"

"I think he's confusing me with someone else," Albus said softly. "He's accuse me of spying on him when I don't know what he's talking about."

Professor McBain frowned a little as he stirred the cauldron. "I'll talk to him for you."

Albus wasn't sure why McBain was being so generous to him. In fact, it was strange how kind McBain had been to him this entire year especially in comparison to Professor Ramirez.

"You don't have to," Albus said but Professor McBain insisted.

He added a strange juice to the potion and even took a swig of it himself after he put half of the vial into the potion.  
"Sir," Albus asked as McBain stirred. "What are you brewing?"

"It's a potion for advanced sight," McBain said. "Professor Ramirez requested that I brew it for him. He said he kept having this vision..." McBain stopped himself before he continued. "But it's nothing I need talk about. That's his business."

Albus nodded slowly but he couldn't help but feel curious. McBain continued brewing the potion telling Albus all about the ideal qualities of a potions master.

"You have potential," McBain said. "You just have to study more. I can arrange for you to take more advanced lessons next year if you wish. You're the best in my first year class. But that's only if you wish and I'll have to write to your parents for permission."

Albus smiled a little. It was the best idea he had heard in a while. It gave him something to look forward to.

"I definitely think that my parents would enjoy to hear how well I am doing," Albus said. "Thank you, Professor."

...

Rose and Kris had tried for an entire week to keep their eyes on Albus but found it was much more difficult to do than they thought. He liked to wander, Rose noted and he would wander off by himself more often than he liked to take a friend. Sometimes, Rose and Kris would try to invite themselves to go with him and sometimes he would allow it.

Sometimes, however, he would end up slipping off on his own without any warning.

Many times, Rose found out that he had met up with Scorpius in the common room or in the library and found that they would be talking about simple things like potions and school work. Those moments, she felt relieved to know her cousin was safe.

She felt like telling Scorpius what was going on but Kris had convinced her that letting too many people know what they were up to would be problematic. It risked the chance of Professor Ramirez finding out that something was wrong.

All of March was hard with the two of them trying to keep watch on Albus and make sure that Ramirez was trying anything. It was more difficult than they had imagined. Albus started going off to places without telling anyone and disappearing for hours. Kris would search the common room and the owlry while Rose went to the library with no luck.

After a week of this, she thought she'd talk to Scorpius about it and he wasn't very helpful. She found him in the library pulling books off shelves

"What's going on with Albus?" Rose had started the conversation.

It probably wasn't the best because of how vague it was.

"What are you talking about?" Scorpius said reaching for a book titled _The Potion Guide to Mastering Ingredients_.

"He wanders off a lot," Rose explained. "He disappears for hours and doesn't tell anyone where he's going."

Scorpius let out a chuckle and he ruffled through the pages of the book he just pulled. "He's been studying a lot. So have I. End of year exams are closer than you think. Don't you Ravenclaws rave and rant about exams in your common room."

Rose scoffed. "That's a stereotype! Why are you studying so hard anyway? All these books..."

She picked one of them up: _Popular Potions of the Twenty-First Century_. All of the books he was pulling were all about potion making.

"Are you failing potions?" She asked.

Scorpius let out a laugh and the librarian, Madam Pince, scowled in his direction.

"I'm far from failing," He said holding back his laugh. "I am trying to catch up. Apparently, Albus is a genius potions maker and I'm trying to beat him. It's a friendly competition that we have going on."

Scorpius pulled another book from the shelf and flipped through the pages quickly adding: "I think I have everything I need."

He smiled and went to go check the books out leaving Rose by herself. He returned with them in his bags.

"Is this was Albus has been up to?" She asked. "Has he simply been competing with you this entire time?"

Scorpius nodded. "He and I study in the potions classroom every night. Professor McBain lets the two of us brew and even allows us access to his privet storage. He says were his best first years."

Rose was slightly offended by this. She did very well in potions yet Albus and Scorpius hadn't invited her to join this.

"Why did you guys tell me?" She asked.

"It's kind of our thing," Scorpius said with a shrug as the two of them started out of the library. "I thought Albus and I could bond with this. You're already his cousin and someone he likes."

Rose frowned not entirely sure he was right when he said that. Albus avoided talking to her most of the time and seemed very busy. He didn't even trust her with who he was corresponding with that warned him about Ramirez.

He seemed to be trusting Scorpius more than he trusted either herself or Kris. That gave Rose an idea.

"Scorp," She started. "Albus tells you everything, right?"

"He tells me a lot," Scorpius replied. "I mean, we talk mostly about potions. Why?"

"Has Albus mentioned anything about writing to someone in America?"

Scorpius flinched a little as if he knew more than he was letting on. "He's talked to me about letters but not with who he's corresponding. If you want that kind of information, you have to find it by other means."

Rose wasn't sure what Scorpius meant by that.

"Can you explain?"

"Kris has done it before, snooping. I saw him once. I figured there must be something he thought Albus was hiding. So, I took a look myself. I only managed to find one thing but I've never brought it up to him. I don't think he'd want me to share it."

Rose narrowed her eyes. "Scorpius, I really need to know."

Scorpius, this time, frowned at her. "Why is this so important?"

Rose couldn't help but blurt out: "Kris and I think Albus is in danger."

Scorpius stopped walking for a moment and stared at her. He looked skeptical of what she was saying and eventually shook her head.

"Albus trusts me, Rose," He said. "I'm not ready to do anything that breaks his trust and that includes telling his secrets to anyone. They're his secrets and you should trust him too."

With that, Scorpius walked off leaving Rose in the corridor.

...


	13. The Future Stone

Chapter Thirteen

Professor McBain had, somehow, managed to convince Professor Ramirez to forget the essay that he had assigned to Albus during detention. This worked well for Albus because he hadn't originally intended on researching anything on divinations. He was very focused on his potions work though he managed to get by really well in his other classes.

Because of his research on magical ingredients for potions, Herbology wasn't entirely hard to manage. He had already read through the entirety of Magical Herbs and Fungi to help him. Transfigurations wasn't the easiest class but he still got his homework done with help from Kris who seemed to always want to do homework and keep Albus in the common room. But he was lucky he had Kris to help him with Astrology because he didn't pay too much attention.

History of Magic, which was taught by the ghost Professor Binns, was another story entirely. There seemed to be no way Albus could pass that class even with Rose who seemed to know everything she could about the subject. When Kris wasn't nagging him to study, Rose was spewing historical facts about the witches and wizards she had read about.

Albus felt lucky to have Scorpius because he was the only one who didn't treat him like he was different or as if he were dumb. The two had long, riveting conversations about things both of them liked. All the time he spent studying with Scorpius really took his mind off of things and he had nearly forgotten about Professor Ramirez. It was merely by accident that his mind stumbled onto the thoughts of Divinations.

Albus was working with Scorpius in the Potions classroom one evening when he came across the name of a potion he had remembered: _visum provectus_. It was a potion for advanced sight. This book, a book he had taken from one of McBain's shelves to read more about the Draught of the Living Death, was certainly not a book meant for first year potion brewing but he had been curious yet. When he found the page for the visum provectus potion, he couldn't help but be curious.

 _The Visum Provectus Potion_

 _Known as the potion for advanced sight, it allows one skilled in divinations to view the past, present, and future locations of items or people. This potion should be drunk in small portions because of the insidious side effects of taking it:_

 _Vomiting, nausea, and abdominal pain_

 _Vision loss, hearing loss, and body numbness_

 _Fainting, fatigue, and sometimes death_

 _Drinkers should be weary of these side effects before drinking and should have a remedy available if needed_

It went on to list the ingredients needed for the potion and Albus was appalled at some of the items that went into this. Some of them even sounded illegal. This made him question why Professor Angel Ramirez needed a potion like this to be brewed and why Elias McBain was helping him brew it. Surely, it wasn't the kind of potion Ramirez was going to be giving to his students or even telling them about.

Albus thought back to the assignment that Ramirez had given to him. He had asked him to research something, a stone of some sort. But he couldn't quite remember what it was called. It was some magical stone that was meant for divinations.

"Scorpius," Albus said suddenly and Scorpius looked up startled.

"You're lucky I don't have a fire under my cauldron," Scorpius said and noticed the expression on Al's face. "You're looking very serious."

"Do you have that book on magical items Professor McBain mentioned to us?"

Scorpius smiled and reached for his bag pulling it out. "Of course. He talked about a cauldron that was charmed to turn anything put into it into gold. Turns out, that's a myth."

He placed the book in front of Albus who snatched it up quickly ignoring the confused look his friend had on his face. He quickly flipped through the pages trying to find any talk of stones and divinations until his eyes landed on _futurum saxum._

 _Said to be known as the future stone, its supposed powers are known to see a lot more than just the future. The stone can view past and future events and even allows the one who uses it to change the past to effect the future. It has also been named the all-seeing stone by those who believe it to be real due to its nature of seeing any event that a person desires. Someone who holds this stone would be considered all-knowing of each and every detail as accurate as up to ten seconds past._

 _No proof of such a stone exists yet wizards and witches around the world have searched far and wide._

"It's a myth," Scorpius said looking over Albus' shoulder.

"I'm not quite sure," Albus said and Scorpius rolled his eyes picking up the book.

"Al," He said. "We should be focused on potions. That's the whole reason McBain let us use this space."

"Scorp," Al said softly. "I think Professor Ramirez is using a potions to try and discover the location of this stone."

Scorpius looked very skeptical as he placed the book down on the desk and crossed his arms over his chest.  
"What sane person would try to find a mythical stone?"

Albus took a deep breath and explained that he had smelt the scent of a strange potion in Ramirez's office during the detention and that, after, Ramirez assigned for him to write a researched report about this very stone. He told him that he believed Ramirez was up to something but left out the letter from Cantor telling him just as much.

"And Professor McBain was brewing a potion that smelt almost exactly like what Ramirez was drinking the night I found him here. He was brewing it by request of Professor Ramirez and this was it."

He shoved the book he had previously been reading in front of Scorpius with the page opened to the explanation of the _Visum Prospectus_ and Scorpius scanned it over with his eyes slowly. Albus watched as he frowned and looked up unsure.

"Albus," Scorpius said softly. "What if your crazy theory about Ramirez is correct? What would he want with this stone?"

Albus shook his head. Anyone would want this stone, he thought. It would tell them every single thing they wanted to know. If Ramirez was the head of an organization of dark wizards, he'd use that stone to take over the wizarding community in America. Albus couldn't let that happen.

"We have to stop him somehow," Albus said sharply.

"How?"

Before he could answer, Professor McBain stepped into the room announcing that they should get to the common room because curfew was only five minutes away. Albus and Scorpius packed up their belongings and each picked up a stack of books which McBain let them keep in an empty storage cupboard. They both left the room remaining quiet until they reached the common room.

"We have to think of a plan," Scorpius said looking to Albus.

"I think I have one," Albus said looking around.

The common room had many people in it and he couldn't risk sharing his idea at the moment. He agreed to tell it to Scorpius the next morning in the owlry. With that, the two boys went to bed early.

...

Scorpius woke before Albus and was sure to be out of bed just before his friend woke. He was curious to what Albus was thinking and had spent almost the entire night thinking of a plan of his own just in case he needed to. He wasn't sure what the whole story was or why Albus was so intent on believing that Professor Ramirez was up to something but he knew that Albus had to be correct about something.

He had found, a few weeks ago, a letter from the ministry talking about a quillpal program that Albus had signed up for. It allowed him to write to someone in the United States and he was sure that this person had told Albus something about Professor Ramirez. It had to be or else Albus wouldn't have suspicions like this. Scorpius just kept telling himself to trust Albus the way that Albus trusted him.

When Albus woke, he looked over to Scorpius and the two locked eyes. They didn't need to say a word as Al slipped out of bed and dressed. Albus left the room first and Scorpius followed. They went to the owlry and found it deserted of people and owls flying in and out. Some hard parcels and letters attached while some dropped dead mice to the ground.

When Albus seemed sure that no one was listening in, even checking twice outside the owlry for eavesdroppers, he pulls Scorpius close so that only he could hear:

"I think we should use the potion before Ramirez does and find the location of the stone," Albus said which was exactly what Scorpius thought he'd say.

"Albus," Scorpius said softly. "The likely-hood that the stone is anywhere near here is very slim."

potion to look for it. He knows it's got to be around here. He came here all the way from the United States."

Albus hesitated when he responded and Scorpius couldn't help but think there was something else going on, that Albus knew more about Ramirez than he was letting on. But he didn't question that. Instead, he investigated further into Al's plan.

"Say we do find the stone," He said softly. "What do we do with it? Ramirez will use the potion and he'll know we have it."

Albus seemed to have anticipated this question. "I thought long and hard how we could hide it and I couldn't think of an answer. We're going to have to destroy it."

Scorpius flinched a little. Destroying magical objects weren't always an easy feat and could have dire consequences. Plus, he had heard about this stone before and if it did exist, it would be tempting for someone not to use it. He, himself, believed that it would be difficult for him not to see with it. Everyone questioned where the future would bring them.

"Okay," Scorpius agreed. "Now, what about the potion. It's not usually something first years could brew and some of the ingredients would be impossible for us to get ahold of."

A smirk spread across Al's face. "I saw where McBain is keeping the potion while it settles. It's not ready yet but I figure we could swipe some of it, just the right amount."

Scorpius nodded slowly. While he never stole before, he figured it was a viable option in this scenario. He reasoned that McBain probably wouldn't even notice if a little bit was missing. Then another thought occurred to him.

"Albus, we've both read the side effects," Scorpius said. "They're kind of nasty. The potion could be deadly."

Albus took a deep breath and it took him a while to respond. Scorpius waited patiently for him to say something.

"I'll take it," He eventually said. "I'll make sure the dosage is right but, in case I screw that up, I'll be the one to drink it. I'm sure, if something does start happening to me, you'll be able to brew something up to ease my suffering."

Albus tried to smile but Scorpius could see the discomfort in his eyes. He was fearful of whatever this potion could do and Scorpius didn't blame him. The ingredients were sickening and the effects were dangerous if things didn't go correctly.

"Al," He said placing his hand on his friend's shoulder. "I'll make sure that I do all I can to help you."

The half-hearted smile Albus wore brightened a little. "So, when should we do this?"

"We have access to the potions classroom," Scorpius responded. "We should sneak the potion away tonight and probably test it on the weekend."

Albus nodded slowly agreeing and pulled back. Scorpius told Albus he'd see him later and he started out of the owlry and down to the great hall for breakfast.

...

Albus sat alone in the owlry with a letter on his lap. He read it over to himself:

 _Dear Cantor,_

 _My friend, Scorpius, and I think we know what Ramirez plans. We think he's after the futurum saxum and we plan on stopping him before he can find the stone. We will be devising a plan to get rid of the stone so that it doesn't fall into Ramirez's hands. I will write to you when the deed is done._

 _Albus_

Albus took a deep breath before calling out for an owl. Zed flew down and landed on his shoulder and he felt bad telling Zed that he couldn't use him. Zed nipped his ear and flew off angrily before a brown owl flew down and Albus caught him. Quickly, he tied the letter to the owl's leg and it took off.

Albus started down the steps of the owlry with his hands in his pocket trying not to think about what he was going to be doing. He was sure he had to do this but he was nervous of the long term effects of drinking this potion. He was also very nervous of stealing from the professor who had the most faith in him.

He started toward the transfigurations classroom skipping breakfast once again. In fact, he wasn't sure when the last time he had eaten breakfast was. He wasn't hungry, still. His stomach was turning and he swore he'd be sick if he tried to eat.

He sat down in his seat and waited quietly for class to start.

...

 **Authors Note: Please let me know what you guys think of this chapter.**

 **Rahxas**


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